Electrical Geekery

While there are others who work with larger electrical systems than I. Mine is not the smallest in our area. With 5 transformer systems feeding 208Volt and 480Volt 3 phase lines into our complex at 500KVA to 750KVA, we also have our main motor that by itself pulls 2400Volts 3 phase at 300+Amps!

You know you're doing it right when the electrical utility calls you to ask if you are running something out of the ordinary because they are seeing intermittent spikes in demand on your areas circuit. Of course the answer was, yes we are running something that puts us on the upper edge of our electrical draw all at once.

On a related note: it is interesting to see a 3-1/2" diameter, schedule 160, steel pipe bend more than an inch over a four foot length of it. Impressive amount of force applied to do that. Maybe that's why the motor was running so hard, duh.