[BC] 3 phase to single phase conversion - a sneaky, perhaps unethical solution

[Xmitters at aol.com]

Suppose we could somehow find out how much a customer's load had to be, where 
the engineers at the power company would, as a matter of normal practice, 
specify all three phases? So I build my new transmitter building and ask the 
power company for a service that is above their open delta load capacity policy
. 

My guess is that they would still probably charge for the third wire, but at 
a lesser rate than ordering closed delta where open delta would suffice. 

The power company *is* interested in keeping their phases loaded as equally 
as possible/practical, even though open delta could theoretically supply any 
sized load. 

I suppose  eventually the power company will ask where all the electrical 
load is that you wanted to feed. You could buy some kind of big electrical load
, 
and fire the sucker up once in a while to keep them off your back. 

I realize that this would be an incredibly dirty trick to pull, but if you 
drew the "high" load you specified once in a while, I don't see what they could
 
do about it. 

"Well, I did not say I was going to draw 2.5 megawatts ALL the time, and you 
didn't ask."

When I built our transmitter plant 1986, we expected to add a second 50 kW FM 
eventually, and ordered the appropriate service. The power company rep 
pestered me  every month for quite some time, even though we did order, and pai
d 
for, the third phase. We just did not have it loaded as heavily as the power 
company was counting on,  Boo Hoo. Cry a river, build a bridge, and get over it
!

At what point would the power company charge the cost of installing the third 
phase, if a customer didn't draw all of the load, as originally specified 
when service was ordered? The power company does need to be compensated for 
accommodating a third-phase, low load customer, but most companies charge 
unreasonable fees. 

I wonder .....

Jeff Glass, BSEE CSRE
Chief Engineer
WNIU WNIJ
Northern Illinois University