In message <[email protected]>, dated Wed,
21 Mar 2012, Brian Oconnell <[email protected]> writes:
I see minimal politics in EMC or safety standards - so they are a
technical standard.
You should be there! In EMC, PLT is pure politics, but there are more
subtle examples.
In fact, 'politics versus engineering' is the wrong way to look at the
subject. It's better looked at as 'economics versus technology', and
standards committees are increasingly being 'encouraged' (coerced) into
addressing economic questions that they are not trained, and not
empowered, to answer, thus bearing the blame when everything goes
pear-shaped.
PLT is an obvious case; if it can be made to work, it could generate
gigabucks, some for private enterprise and 20% at least as tax for
governments. But at the technology level, it can only be made to work by
inconveniencing amateur radio operators, who don't have enough votes to
matter.
I see significant 3d and 4th party agenda influence on the
environmental standards - so they can be considered political
standards. So I would like to know what are/were the exogenous
influences on the EU distribution systems that made it a political
voltage?
OK, you did ask! The European Commission decided that, like water,
natural gas and fuel, electricity is a 'commodity' and thus needs
'quality at the point of delivery' regulations just as the others have.
However, while, in principle, a simple 'non-return valve' prevents users
from contaminating the other three, users are adept at contaminating the
electricity supply with harmonic currents and load current changes that
propagate voltage changes through the network, and no 'no-return valve'
analogue exists.
Also, straying trucks and trees, and wind, rain and snow, affect
electricity supplies much more than the others. So the electricity
suppliers negotiated EN 50160, a 'quality standard' for electricity.
It's not really a standard in the usual sense, because it has so many
'ifs', 'unlesses' and 'excepts' etc. that conformity to it is not very
meaningful, but it is a 'political standard'. Even so, nothing much
better can be done. Included in it is '230 V +/-10 %'.
--
OOO - Own Opinions Only. Try www.jmwa.demon.co.uk and www.isce.org.uk
John Woodgate, J M Woodgate and Associates, Rayleigh, Essex UK
If 'QWERTY' is an English keyboard, what language is 'WYSIWYG' for?
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