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You might have noticed electrical wiring like this often already since it is very common practice in many southern countries. If you are not an electrician it might look like "spaghetti" to you but it actually is quite simple to understand. Here we go :
Click 🖱️ to open
1 : Incoming cable with four wires : phases 1, 2 and 3 plus neutral.This picture shows you what is going on there. And the nice aspect is that you have to "study" it only once since it is technique so it always works this way everywhere. Just click this picture to study the original situation and compare it with this remarked picture. You will be the expert within one minute !
In 1820 Hans Christian Ørsted noticed by accident that an electrical current (from one of the first chemical batteries) that ran through a wire caused the needle of a compass to move. He did not understand why that happened but somewhat later Andre-Marie Ampere declared the principle mathematically. This is the principle of induction : the contactless transfer of electrical energy.
Michael Faraday was the first to use electricity to create mechanical movement. If the needle of a compass was moving by electrical energy in a wire the needle would start turning if more wires were put around a compass. He built the very first electrical motor in 1821 and ten years later he managed to invert that process. In 1831 he created the first machine that produced an electrical pulse on the basis of induction. So also contactless, non-rotating and static, producing one pulse at a time.
Then, in 1832, Hippolyte Pixii created the first real dynamo, so a rotating machine that produced a continous electrical power. He used an electrical motor to have two magnets rotate inside a copperwire coil.
This is still the principal of the wellknown old-fashioned bicycledynamo that is driven by the tire. It is a very simple and reliable system and so easy and cheap to produce.
This picture shows the opposite system where the coil is turning which is more powerfull. But you then need sliprings to get the electrical energy out of the rotating coil. These sliprings limit the maximum current, so the power, and are prone to wear. Therefor the rotating magnetscilinder was turned into an electrical magnet. The original outside magnets were replaced by static coils in the housing. That way the electrical powerpart of the energy system became completely static and so it could be upscaled hugely.
To be noted is that this is one (1) coil, so with only one (1) voltage. With only one coil (so only the blue or the red or the green one) that one voltage will not have an overlap and inbetween both halfs of the sinus wave the voltage (and so the power) will be null.
For that reason the 3-phase system conquered the world. There now are 3 separate windings so 3 separate voltages and there behaviour is 120 degrees apart (since they are positioned evenly inside a round housing). When voltage (power) L1 descends voltage (power) L2 is taking over and when voltage (power) L2 descends voltage (power) L3 will take over. After which voltage (power) L1 will take over again. The 3-phase equipment, as it is called, like motors, can be far more powerfull and run smooth.
But 1-phase consumers, like houses, can do ruine the electrical balans
if too many of them are connected to the same phase.
That 1-phase overload (unbalance) would actually cause a kind of
step-step-boink-step-step-boink running of the generator.
For that reason the houses (loads) are connected (spread) over the 3 phases as much as possible.
This is why the houses A and B at the intro-picture are connected to different phases.
As you can also see at that picture that cable serves only two houses, no more. The third phase is not connected here. So inside this cable there is actually a step-boink-boink-step-boink-boink situation towards the generator.
But nowadays there is a new problem to solve. Privately owned solarpanelsets are getting more and more common (and powerfull !) and so house A and house B could produce even more electricity then they need.
Most solarpanels (-controllers) produce a 1-phase power that is "pushed upstream" into the existing system for as far there is a surplus. And maybe each solarset pushes it's solarenergy into that same phase L1. Nobody coordinates a balanced spread of this power and the local grids are having more and more problems because of this.
Extra problem is that this concerns solarenergy, so it is produced during daylight, and at private buildings. But many people are not at home during days so they then use the least of there selfproduced energy. They went to there jobs and took there e-car or e-bike to get there so they can not be charged with there own solorenergy either. Since locally produced sustainable energy will grow hugely this problem has to be solved (soon !).
HowTo1 do that ? Force houseowners to have a dual electricity measurementsystem installed. The two gauges can from then on be "compensated" (or less, or not) to each other by your favorite politican. The always effective "follow the money" principal will take care that the solarenergy will then be used more inhouse.
HowTo2 do that ? As usual there is a very simple and effective way : stop paying solarpanel-owners for the surplus electricity they upload. Or even charge them for that (which is the new reality already).
HowTo3 Really do that ? Store the energy somehow somewhere.
A local intelligent batteryset can take care of the balancing and ofcourse of the storing. Non-used electricity will ofcourse be stored in that battery from which it can be used during the nights. More surplus electricity will then be uploaded into the grid. But it will continously check the voltages L1, L2 and L3 (as far as available) and deliver all the remaining solarenergy to the phase with the lowest voltage.
There are a few problems concerning the balancing.
- The battery can only choose the best phase for uploading if there is anything to choose of.
- So there is nothing to choose in most southern european houses (and elsewhere worldwide !)
since they are each connected to only 1 phase.
- In more modern houses there are 2 phases available (or maybe even 3).
However these phases are hardly ever available in the same room.
In other words, the batteryset needs a special-made (non-diy !) multiphase connection.
- A batteryset is for sure more expensive then the solarpanelset itself.