On 19 Mar 2001 20:50:08 +0300, Peter L. Peres wrote:
> >I Saskatchewan where grew up the rural power distribution was a
> >single wire using the ground (the real one) as the return.
> >
> >It worked quite well to supply power to widely distributed farms.
> >
> >Each farm had a pole mounted transformer to provide a
> >center tapped 220v.  Normal outlets were 110V.
> >
> >Walter Banks
>
> I'll take your word for this but I suspect very high line voltage and a
> step current problem near the pole with the transformer on dry days (are
> there any dry days in Saskatchewan ?). Also any polar light and serious
> magnetic disturbance would do terrible things to such a system imho. True
> ?
>



Here in Australia we run 415V 3phase power, 240V to neutral.

In the more-rural less-urban parts of the country (that's probably about
99.5% of the state of South Australia :-) )
power is supplied via a SWER (Single Wire Earth Return) feed.  Cheap -
one catenary.  It runs at either 11kV or 33kV.  Those whom I know who
have SWER lines have zero problems EXCEPT the power company provides the
step down transformer and they skimp a bit so the archetypal farmer arc
welding the tractor in the shed whilst spouse is cooking dinner causes
the kid's computer to reboot.  Come to think of it, that could be a
feature!

Apropos the dryness etc - no.  The earth is a fine conductor.
"Watering" the earth stake on the transformer does nothing for you.
Can't speak about the aurora - we're too far north :-)

/Kevin

--
Kevin J. Maciunas              Net: kevin@cs.adelaide.edu.au
Dept. of Computer Science      Ph : +61 8 8303 5845
University of Adelaide         Fax: +61 8 8303 4366
Adelaide 5005 SOUTH AUSTRALIA  Web: http://www.cs.adelaide.edu.au/~kevin

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