Hi all,
I have a product to regulate the voltage that feeds streetlights of mercury vapour and high preasure sodium. I need to know what is the overvoltage level on the street lights at night to calculate energy savings when power is regulated. In other countries power is not stable at all, how is it in USA?

if the street lights circuit is 240VAC will it go to 250, 260 or at what level during the night?

same for 277VAC and 480VAC.

Most streetlighting here is utility owned & maintained, and not within the realms of electrical contractors.

You indicate your location as Miami, Florida, so based on this...why do you ask "how is it in USA?"

Please re-read the regulations of this forum!!

Our power is the best in the world ... and we're getting rid of those obsolete lights as fast as we can.

Zng, this really isn't the right forum for your question, but as a courtesy I can give you some numbers. ECN is for electricians who do and to discuss electrical work for homes, factories, offices and other private users of electricity.

Most streetlights are maintained by the power companies for the towns they are in. Most operate on 120V. Our voltages are will regulated, usually from 117 to 125VAC. The specification for service says 110V to 125V. Though rarely I've seen 132V (not because of a bad neutral, but because of a power company error), (it can't get much higher than that, as the power company transformers' cores would go into saturation) and as low as 105V (hot summer day, when the power company is trying to avoid a blackout but is losing the battle). Oh, sometimes lightning will hit a line, but you should see the same sort of event in your home country.

I believe we discussed this subject several years back- don't pocos try and maintain nominal volts @ ± 4%?

sort of stupid question but is there any difference from a HPS fixture installed by an electrical contractor in a store parking lot from one installed on the street next to the store by the utility.?

mb:

Most ECs here don't touch POCO owned street lighting. Some 'Private' communities have HOA owned road lighting, which are the same as other site lights. The POCO is even installing site lighting on private property (shopping centers), with flat rate pricing including power, maintenance and replacement as required.

We came upon some utility owned site lighting (retail center) that was HPS, 1000 watt with a unusual dual element bulb. I don't know anything other than the bulb info.

A new management company took over the site, called me for lighting maintenance. My crew arrived at the site (1st & last time), located the "downed pole", secures & safe off. I arrived shortly after, drove around the center, saw what I know as POCO wattage code stickers on the pole heads. I called the POCO contact, gave him the info, & we left. Needless to say....first & last trip.

I am not even sure most HOAs own their street lights. At my wife's places (3 gated communities in all), the PoCo installs and maintains the street lights because they are in the utility easement even though the street itself is privately owned and maintained.
They do have privately owned lights in the parking lots and other common areas.

Gregg.,

I have ran into couple HOA area and it was sorta like grey area all it depending on the layout and the POCO R.O.W { right of way } easément ways but for privited own parking lots the small one genrally privite owned unless got a contract with POCO for larger one it will useally be privite owned unless the HOA have contract with POCO.

But one thing the POCO will not install any type of luminaire to the customer building that is a no-no in most case.


Merci,
Marc

John { hotline }.,

I know what you are talking about dual tube 1000 W HPS they are very expensive son of gunner .,, the last bulb I did buy last year it was over 150 Euros

They are rated for 140,000 lumens and bulb life is about 44,000 hours { for dual arc tube the single is typically 24,000 hours }

Merci,
Marc

The only place the PoCo here will install a light is on one of their poles. That is usually in the ROW. They will provide a somewhat decorative pole and have a few heads you can choose from but they are pretty slow to do any maintenance beyond changing bulbs and ballasts. If the pole is damaged, the HOA buys it. They even fight about normal wear and tear.

Marc:

Merci for the dual arc tube bulb confirmation.

Greg,

In the town that I inspect in, the HOA does own their own street lights. When one of their poles got hit, they had to get a permit and I had to do the inspection. I thought all the HOA used the POCO lights, till this happened about 2 years ago.

Is that in a utility ROW or is it in a privately owned patch? That seems to be the deciding factor here. Now once the poles are installed, the HOA does become responsible for the cost of replacing them when they are damaged. If these are on an existing utility pole that is not really relevant but usually they have buried utilities here so the light poles are only for the light.
My wife has found it is easier to simply pay the PoCo for this but I suppose they could hire their own electrician.


As for the voltage itself, I would bet the voltage at the end of the line would be somewhat low at night because of voltage drop and during the day when the lights were off in the day time it would be high all the way down the line.

If they are simply tying into the closest convenient 120/240 transformer as they go down the road this effect will be less.

Greg,

I will find out from the town engineer later today when I see him. As for where they tie into, the will take like 5-10 pole and hit the nearest condo/townhouse, then take the next 5-10 and hit a different condo that is closest to the next 10 etc., etc.. The issue I had last year was that one of their poles got hit and knocked down and the open wires were laying on the ground. They finally got them boxed off. That was when we found out that the UF wire feeding these pole were only buried about 6" under the sod. You could actually see the wire in several spots.

Is that a contractor doing the work or the actual PoCo?

I have seen some "contractors" doing pretty shoddy work. I don't think they are actually licensed ECs, just a couple foreigners with a baby Kaboda backhoe. I watched them running service laterals threading sticks of 2" RNC over the triplex and dropping it in the hole.

Greg,


The ROW is there but the HOA owns it. The POCO has no ROA in that complex. As for the street lights, a lic. EC was doing the work. They cut the roadway open, laid pipe in the trench and back filled and put macadam over it.

Sounds like something was done out of sequence at that complex if they had to cut the road for the u/g wiring.

Usually out here the poly pipe for the wires is trenched in first and the road is paved over it.

The worst U/G wiring I ever saw was a Contractor who saved time and money in his subdivision by laying the UF cable on top of the bare ground and then laying the sod on top of it.
Some people are just totally clueless!!

In lower Vancouver Island the street lights are owned and maintained by the municipalities they are installed. I cannot say for sure but outside of municipalities I think the lights are owned by the province where on a provincial highway.
So the POCO does have a voltage sag during peak and a rise above nominal at the lowest demand for which they do make some adjustment.
The tolerance is dictated by the Utilities commission which regulate their work and the delivery of their services.
With the advent of electronic ballasts and power supplies it is more and more common to see devices that can tolerate voltages from 85 to 240 volts without any different connections. Some ballasts even accommodate 120 to 347 volts + - %10.

If I were a utility or a municipality I am not sure I would also want another device in my luminaries to deal with what is a pretty closely regulated voltage level. Or in other words the local utility is pretty close in peak and off peak voltage regulation. The generally react to the exceptions quickly.

Ghost,


That is exactly what they did in this condo assoc. they laid down the wire with sod above. It was barely in the ground, in the deeper spots it was maybe 6" down. That is why the new EC had to rip up roads in order to get the new lines around the condo roadways.