🚀 go-pugleaf

slmdj@cc.usu.edu writes:

> While visiting my uncle in Calif. over Christmas break, he posed a question f
> me... Just so I have an answer for him (and myself too... It's an odd one)
> could someone help me out???
> 
> He is an assistant city engineer for Adelanto, CA, and told me that the way
> their power is distributed to a large substation is Direct Current!  He said
> that the DC is then 'phased' or 'converted' so that there is a three-phase AC
> line to the city distribution grid.  Neither of us have any idea how this cou
> be accomplished at such power levels (an entire valley, I think!)
> 
  Right now the lights and computer here are being run by a whacking
great large DC to AC converter system; in this part of the world, we
generate electricity in the far North at 60HZ AC, convert it to DC,
ship it 800 km south, and re-convert to 3 phase 60 HZ 230KV, which is
fed into the regular grid.  I believe total converter capacity in the
province is something like 2000 megawatts.  Never heard of DC to
AC converstion being used at the "municipal" level but I suppose it
could be done - seems a little unlikely, but two neighbouring
grids are sometimes interconnected by a back-to-back AC/DC/AC link
for good reasons. 
   Bill

bills@inqmind.bison.mb.ca
The Inquiring Mind BBS, Winnipeg, Manitoba  204 488-1607