[Amps] Lines Voltage High

[Jerry Kaidor]

Hello,

   I've noticed that the 110V at the wall socket has crept up over the past
several years.  Nowadays it always seems to be 125V.  I read somewhere
that such high voltage is not good for the 30L-1, and I took steps to set
the bias point properly with a diode string in the PTT line.

   OK, last week I had an opportunity to ask a PG&E ( the local power
company ) guy about it.  Why has the voltage come up?  His answer was
simple:

                   ************ SOLAR *************

   The price of solar stuff has come down, the government is giving
incentives, so there are more and more systems out there.  Little
generation facilities that the power company has no control over,
pumping electrons into the grid.  So it's become harder for them to
regulate the grid voltage.  Before, if it got too high, they'd just
generate less.  Easy.  Now, when there's excess energy - what can they
do?  They can send it elsewhere, but what if elsewhere also has an
excess?  Gotta dump it, I guess.  In a *big* dummy load somewhere. 
Wait, they can still generate less.  Maybe it has more to do with
voltage drops.  Up till now, the residential grid was a pure *consumer*
of current....

                   - Jerry Kaidor, KF6VB