Normally all this is taken into the design and operation of the distribution "grid".
It's quite possible to have generation plants simply coast portions or all of their equipment on the grid as correction factor.... in hydro operation sometimes known as "motoring the prime mover". In the very much smoke and mirrors grid operation I've seen here in Northern California... we would receive out of area energy purchased at a much reduced cost and pay the local plant a minimal amount to simply motor the line and correct the area PF. Although less common these days there are/were also a fair number of dyna-motor facilities set upon the grid to address distribution line problems. Most of the required functions are now address by fixed electronics (power correction capacitors and in some cases inductors). Transformers are normally thought of as RF Shunts and along the distribution path (grid) you have a fair number of low RF Impedance devices paralleled. Whale tale stories... KW hour cost for very old Hydro Plants was fixed for decades at about 2.5 mils of a cent. Last 1995 era cost of Nuclear energy from Diablo Canyon was informally quoted at 11 cents kwh. So of course in the Enron Days they'd motor over a hundred mega-watts of low cost local (clean) Sierra California hydro plants (price set under an old 1957 contract) so PG&E could cost justify the cash-cow Nuclear Plant at the higher cost. go figure... cheers, s. > There was a case I think in Canada where they ran into > this problem. The transmission lines from one side of > the continent to the other was an odd multiple of a > quarterwave (1,250 km). > Since a quarter-wave acts as a impedance transformer, when > they put a low impedance load at the far end, the cable > transformed this to a high impedance at the generator end > and they couldn't get power into it. > The solution? Either fit impedance correction devices > along the cable, or transmit DC power and convert it back > to AC at the load end (they do that with a power cable > running between the mainland of Australia and the island > of Tasmania).
