[Elecraft] BPL

[N2EY@aol.com]

The following is not meant as a criticism of anyone, just pointing out some 
facts. I live a few miles from the PJM operations center. 

In a message dated 8/16/03 6:32:11 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
dlajr@bellsouth.net writes:

> The difference in safety is negligible? .....
 I believe the power industry is blind to this issue.

They're not blind - their interpretation is different. Buried lines are 
subject to flooding, being hit by people who don't know the lines are there, 
underground fires, etc. 
> 
> 
> The difference in national security is negligible? ...At any rate, the 
> reason most power lines are underground on continental
> Europe is that they have been through two world wars in the last hundred
> years.  They understand.

Do you mean the local distribution is underground, or the long distance 
transmission is underground? BIG difference.

Underground lines are easily sabotaged (if you know where they are) and 
harder to repair.

> 
> The cost is prohibitive?......

Yes. Construction cost has to be paid for up-front, while maintenance cost is 
pay-as-you-go. Underground lines have to be inspected and tested, too, at a 
cost that is higher than aerial lines. And when they do fail, repair cost is 
astronomical.

There is another cost issue, too. Underground lines are less efficient than 
aerial, for the same reasons coax is less efficent than open wire line. For 
short distances and relatively low voltages this lower efficiency is not too bad. 
Burying hundreds and thousands of miles of 265 kV lines is another matter. 
Who is going to pay for, and where are they going to build, the numerous power 
plants needed to make up the additional losses in underground lines? This is 
NOT a negligible concern - if the loss in underground is 20% higher, then we 
need to build 20% more plants just to stay even. Do you want more nuclear plants 
to make up the difference? Coal? 

How much are you willing to pay for electricity? Residential juice here in 
EPA costs about 13 cents per kilowatt hour. New Yorkers pay even more. What do 
you pay?
 
> 
> Having the lines underground would also eliminate the RFI issues with power
> lines.  No one would be fighting broadband over power lines, and the power
> industry would have yet another source of revenue.

Incorrect. Buried lines can be a source of RFI, odd as that seems. The ends 
aren't buried, for one thing.


> 
> I believe your arguments reveal the shortsighted nature of the management of
> today's power companies (Enron?), and I hope the power industry develops a
> vision instead of an eye for this quarter's bottom line!
> 
> 

Energy companies undertake enormous, long term, highly visible projects. They 
are hamstrung at every turn because nobody wants to live near a transmission 
line, generating station, coal mine, or nuclear facility. (Can we really blame 
them?) Heck, there's a quite reasonable proposal to install wind turbines for 
generation on Cape Cod, and some of the locals there are fighting it because 
they don't want to look at windmills. It's not just NIMBY (Not In My Back 
Yard) but BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything) that the energy 
companies have to deal with. 

But everybody wants abundant, cheap, clean, safe, reliable electricity. And 
it's a commodity that cannot be stored - it has to be  used as soon as its 
made.

A big part of the answer to the problem is greater efficiency resulting in 
lower consumption. That's part of the Elecraft/QRP concept - simplicity and 
technical elegance rather than brute force. Now if we could just sell BPL on that 
idea.

73 de Jim, N2EY


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