[BC] Electrical Code

[PeterH5322@aol.com]

>What do you consider to be 'new', Peter?

I was speaking as a former EE in the planning division of this nation's 
largest municipal utility.

Certainly, practices differ between providers, and there were few 
high-powered broadcast sites within our service boundaries (Los Angeles 
City, and a few related outposts) ... only three 50 kW AMs were sited 
within L.A. proper (710, 1540 and 1580); the rest were in Southern 
California Edison territory (640 and 1070). And, all TVs and most FMs 
were also in SCE territory.

We would drop as many 1,000 KVA (1 MW) mini-distribution stations off of 
our 34,500 volt subtransmission system as a customer required, and at the 
time I worked for the Department our total system demand was about 3,200 
MW, although that was 30 years ago, and the demand is likely doubled, 
now. Most such distribution stations were about 333 kVA (1/3 MW), maximum.

(The three 50 kW AMs I mentioned were dropped off of our 4,800 volt 
system, using pole-mounted transformers).

Nevertheless, the type of services I spoke of are relatively consistent 
between utilities, and it makes little difference whether you're running 
a CE 316 at a city site or two dozen TVs at a mountain site ... there is 
a primary, often 4,800 to 34,500 (distribution or subtransmission), and a 
secondary (service), and a service could be anything the customer 
requested, from a simple 100 A panelboard to 1,500 KVA (1.5 MW) 
metal-clad switchgear, or more.

Incidentally, the NEC, itself, rarely applies to utilities or their 
services. The NEC is applicable mainly to the customer side of the 
service, and most particularly to the customer side of the meter.