ELECTRIC SUBSTATIONS ARE UGLY, NOISY AND PERHAPS UNHEALTHY
By Phil Richardson.
As communities expand, substations are absolutely necessary to alternating current systems when they are unable to meet demand brought about by growth. Feel free to revisit Ohm’s Law in your old Physics textbook. It has to do with the relationship between the resistance of long copper wires to current and voltage, but the operative word in the above is “growth.”
Electrical substations are usually built above ground, inside a fenced enclosure, but can be constructed inside buildings or underground, as has been done in some urban areas.
The greatest harm to aesthetics is done by pylons and giant metal poles necessary to bring power ranging up to 115-thousand volts generated elsewhere to the substations. Also unsightly are the network of progressively smaller wires and poles spreading out from the substation to stepdown transformers within yards of properties that furnish 120 and 220 volts of 60-cycle current to homes and businesses - Hopefully, much of which can be underground, but more often is not.
The only alternative to all of this is requiring each home and business to have solar photovoltaic panels and battery-power storage systems. This technology, including the means of converting the direct current produced to that required by lighting and home appliances is available, reliable and cost-effective in the long term, as well as being very “green” and clean.
One only has to drive under a high voltage line with an AM radio to realize the lines produce strong electromagnetic fields. Substations and “high-tension” wires also often produce a coronal discharge. This is an extremely strong field of energy all up and down the spectrum that can be easily detected by proper instruments. One does not have to hold a doctorate in physics to know that exposure to this is not good for your health.
Anecdotal evidence concerning unexplained deaths in farm animals, clusters of childhood leukemia cases and high rates of cancer in areas where people have been exposed to strong electromagnetric energy have been profuse for decades. Yet, there is no significant link demonstrated by consistent scientific evidence that these issues are caused by living under a power line or near a substation.
Steven Goheen, an analytical chemist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy located in Redmund, Washington, has identified a chemical reaction brought about exposure to high energy sources that he says may explain these higher rates of illness.
There is one thing about which electrical engineers are certain: Conditions in the earth surrounding electrical facilities such as a substation or a bank of lights like those illuminating a sports field can bring about a faulty grounding problem that has the potential to cause injury and death to those nearby. This happened to a child in Tucson this past Summer.
High voltage lines and a substation do cause severe interference over a broad area to AM Radio and through-the-air TV reception.
4 comments:
John, an EXCELLENT presentation! Just one thing I would like to add is that a substation DOES NOT have to be on top of the area it services.The actual station itself can be located in a 'no man's land' and from there, underground wires can be utilized for the purpose of getting to the service area. Why not put this substation somewhere around the I-10 and Tangerine industrial area in the 'flats' where no heavy residential will probably ever take place and where the terrain is relatively blah. A question: is this substation supposed to serve other areas nearby, perhaps in Pinal County, and, if so, why not put it there in a true, flat,'hidden', area as Pinal county has PLENTY of that type of land? OR, is Pima county just after the money?
Oops, I meant Phil not John
Excellent idea. I-10 and Tangerine, there has to be some industerial space out there!!
As to whether or not the 'emissions' given off by such stations and/or powerlines and the 'studies' that have shown they are safe, be reminded of the FACT that cigarette companies for decades claimed there was no relationship between the use of cigarettes, nicotine and the scourge of lung cancer AND the governments of the world tacitly went along with that 'assumption'. Now we know, don't we!
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