Western Electric Transformer

Question Connecting to the National Grid?
I am building a new home together with 2 other self builders and we need to connect to the national grid. The three new properties will be built on land that I have just purchased where a house already exists and is connected to the National Grid. I have contacted "Western Power" the company responsible for the National Grid in the Exeter area of Devon, where the existing house is sited. I have asked Western Power to provide me with a quotation to connect the 3 new properties to the grid. The current property is fed from 3 phase overhead lines which pass within 40M of the existing property. These lines are fed from 2 transformers and there are fuses outside my property. One transformer is half a mile to the east and the other is a quarter of a mile to the west. I am told that I am on the end of the line and if one of the transformers fails then power is feed from the other transformer. Western Power is quoting in excess of £54,000 to connect the 2 new houses to the grid. I have looked on the OFGEN web-site and they indicate that there is a “25% RULE" and my interpretation of this rule is that if the extra 2 properties being built draw more that 25% of the power running down the existing overhead lines then it is for me to pay the upgrading fee for the overhead cable, but if the 2 new properties take less then 25% of the load flowing down the overhead lines, then Western Power is responsible for the cost of upgrading the overhead cables. Does anyone know whether my interpretation is correct? I live in a rural village area which has about 2000 homes and the current house is in a road with about 100 other properties, so I cannot envisage the 2 new properties taking more than 25% of the load carried by the existing overhead cables. If my interpretation is correct and Western Power is responsible for upgrading the lines, how can I find the total load carried by the existing lines, so that I can challenge Western Power? I have challenged Western Power with regard to the loading and the fact that the 2 new properties will not be taking more that 25% of the load currently flowing down the existing cables. They say that they are concerned not about the load, but ‘impedance’ and the neighbours lights dimming when appliances in the new houses are switched on, such as electric showers. Can anyone help me with this bureaucratic problem that I am facing? Also does anyone know of a company, or consultant, who can fight my corner with Western Power on this issue? Regards, any info will be useful.

Best Answer With the "impedance" and "neighbours lights dimming" issues they are basically claiming the loads of the extra two houses will cause a voltage drop on that section of the distribution network. If it was true, which I seriously doubt, it would involve altering the step-down transformer where your section of the network connects onto the wider network. The suggestion that an extra two homes (on 2000) could cause a voltage drop requiring replacing/altering the transformers is just silly. It would probably be better to spend a couple of thousand with a consultant like Garrad Hassan than the full £54,000. Have a look at this too: http://www.senergyworld.com/alternative-energy/services/grid-connection

Question Have history's greatest geniuses mostly been British?
I ask this because it is amazing how many great scientists throughout the ages have primarily eminated from Britain. The following is a non-exhaustive list: 1. Michael Faraday: the first person in the world to harness electricity and inventor of the electric motor, dynamo and transformer. Without electricity there is no electric lighting, no wireless communications, no Bill Gates and no Internet. 2. James Clerk Maxwel: the great scientist that mathematically formulated what the above genius discovered. 3. James Watt: the inventor of the steam engine and precursor to the industrial revolution 4. George stephenson: the inventor of the locomotive and railway 5. Swann: the real inventor of electric lighting who later collaborated with Edison 6. Fleming: inventor of Penicillin 7. Isaac Newton: codifier of gravity and alledgly the greatest physicist of the western world. 8. Turing: the first person to postulate which test an aritifical intelligence computer should pass to be considered intelligent 9. Codd: computer scientist and inventor of Relational Database Management System on which the founder of Oracle based his idea's. 10. Francis Crick and James D. Watson: discoverers of DNA structure 11. Tim Berners Lee: inventor of word wide Web 12. John Maynard Keynes: inventor of Keynesian economics model Do you the world's greatest geniuses have been British? If not, why not? By the way, I don't like Britons myself even though I am a Briton of Pakistani descent. However, credit is where credit is due.

Best Answer Thanks, but there's plenty we can't claim - Albert Einstien, Archimedes, Galileo, Leonardo De Vinci - Ok so I can't make it to 12 but I am sure between answers that might easily be overtaken.