[60815] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: East Coast outage?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Lewis)
Sat Aug 16 22:12:13 2003
Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 22:15:03 -0400
From: "Chris Lewis" <clewis@nortelnetworks.com>
Cc: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <20030816084816.GB666077@hiwaay.net>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
Chris Adams wrote:
> Basic physics. To run DC at the power levels required, the "wire" would
> have to be over 100 feet in diameter IIRC. Look up the Edison vs. Tesla
> power arguments for all kinds of information on AC vs. DC.
This was under the assumption that the transmission line was at the same
voltage as the end-user, because there were no good DC-DC voltage
converters in that day. And a few bazillion amps at 120V needs a really
fat wire.
There's no significant wire size difference between a DC and AC line at
the same ampacity.
Voltage conversion is the key. _If_ you can do it, then transmission
isn't a problem.
