Re: Canada - Land of ice and snow (was RE: California power ... unplugged)

[woods () weird com (Greg A. Woods)]

[ On Monday, April 30, 2001 at 00:35:51 (-0400), Richard A. Steenbergen wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: Canada - Land of ice and snow (was RE: California power ...  unplugged)
>
> Having been caught in an ice storm in Maryland which killed the power for
> several days, I have to say they suck. Besides, you can't fault Canada for
> having worse weather then California.
>
> Canada does manage to get a lot of things right, the theory I heard from a
> canadian friend was that they wait for the US to try something out then
> find out where they screwed it up.

The most recent issue of IEEE Canadian Review (spring 2001 #37) contains
a very interesting article titled "De-icing EHV Overhead Transmission
Lines by Short-circuit Currents".  The cover on the photo shows a
stunning picture of a successful test at IREQ's (Hydro Québec) out-door
high-power laboratory.

The only thing that confused me about the paper was the conclusion that
the effect could only be used on 315 kV lines but not on 735 kV lines
because the process would be too detrimental to network stability and
would affect too many industrial customers and might cause exessive
tripping in the network.  To my estimation any amount of temporary loss
would be more acceptable than downed transmission lines that take weeks
or months to rebuild.  Certainly if customers could be warned of
necessity of a de-icing the "damage" could be minimised.

There's also an interesting article in that same issue with the title
"Electricity Deregulation:  Doubts Brought On by the California Debacle"  :-)

-- 
                                                        Greg A. Woods

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