The Electrical Utility in a Digital Age and Revival of the Science of Electricity in the Digital Age

Presently, much discussion exists regarding the proliferation of harmonics in the electric utility system. Moreover, the susceptibility of this system to damage or destruction from a well-positioned nuclear E.M.P. is a subject of great concern.Such problems are not necessarily intrinsic to the process of electric transmission and distribution, but only present themselves when certain configurations exist within the electric utility system. Paramount in any transmission or distribution system is that such system must be a closed system, that is, the electromagnetic boundary condition must be maintained to the highest practical degree. This assures that the entry or exit of extraneous electric forces is minimized.Presently, with regard to the electric utility system, the electromagnetic boundary condition is being violated in two ways:1)By the ubiquitous employment of Wye to Wye connected transmission and distribution transformers, and related load configuration2)Through the extension of a common neutral connection throughout the entire electric utility systemThe widespread and enforced adoption of these practices has rendered the electric utility system an open system, or in other words, an antenna system, one of unprecedented proportions. The consequences must be obvious.It is the objective of the following series of engineering reports to re-establish a fundamental understanding of polyphase alternating current, and then apply this understanding to the analysis of the situation as it exists today with regard to the electric utility system.In this Digital Age, the theoretical basis provided for Electrical Engineering has been defiled, reduced to an assemblage of delusive pronouncements enforced by a cabal of academic theoreticians. What gives authoritative force to their dictates is the overtly complex and convoluted mathematics which enshrouds them. This mathematics in turn becomes a “rite of passage” in teaching and replacing reason and experiment. Once the idols become digitized, they become law, and consequently electricity has become a lost science, relegated to the same scrap heap as alchemy.However, in historical perspective, the theoretical basis for electrical engineering had achieved a very high level of development at the onset of the 20th century, this to meet the demands of a rapidly developing commercial enterprise, most notably that of the electro-magnetic telegraph and later electric light and power. Electrical science progressed remarkably well in this era, and thus became an exact science which engendered well thought out theories. The foundations of this science were derived from the Experimental Researches of Michael Faraday and their Mathematical Development by Clerk Maxwell. This became known as the “Faraday-Maxwell” Theory of Electricity.