Dr Zarkoff Wrote:
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> Are you sure? I seriously doubt PG&E would go for
> it because it would unbalance its 3 ph system. The
> last commercial single phase power that I've heard
> of was associated with the ex-PRR electrified
> territory. For many decades the attitude of US
> power companies has been "we'll sell you 3 ph
> power at 60 cycles, then you do what you want with
> it, provided your grounding procedures/processes
> don't conflict with ours."

I once thought this choo-choo's putting regen power back into the grid was an "easy peasy" great theory. Then I had to work with real electrical engineers and folks from Edison, and quickly "regen" back into the power grid got all kinds of more costly, and messy, and not very easy at all... It can be done, it is done, but the efficiency is so-so and highly "situational", and the resultant cost benefit analysis can be all over the place, depending on the input and output assumptions used.