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Replacing the wires cost half as much as adding new wires. So I think it actually makes more sense to add new wires. It will give some level of redundancy for o

Replacing the wires cost half as much as adding new wires. So I think it actually makes more sense to add new wires. It will give some level of redundancy for only double cost and you don't need to impact current electricity delivery.

tstrimple 3y ago
I know absolutely nothing about transmission lines and the like. I'm curious about whether the asymmetric nature of new lines on top of old line capacities causes problems. Much like you've got to pay attention when mixing 10gb networking devices and 1gb devices.
- pixl97 3y ago
  I'm assuming you'd replace all the wires on the transmission tower set before applying higher power rates to it. Think of each wire on a power pole like a single wire inside of a cat5 bundle. You wouldn't plug it in to a 10Gb nic until they were all upgraded to cat6/7 capability.
- toast0 3y ago
  > Much like you've got to pay attention when mixing 10gb networking devices and 1gb devices. Maybe with fiber transceivers, sure. But twisted pair is fine... Some of the 10G equipment doesn't go all the way down to 10M anymore, but just put your old 10M equipment on the 10/100/1G ports, and the 10G equipment on 10G ports. It can be on the same subnet, no big deal, as long as you're not running jumbo packets or at least only using jumbo with MTU discovery. (You can usually even run 10G on cat5e, as long as it's not too long, and not in dense conduit)
specialist 3y ago
Also, retrofitting (reconductoring) can be done today, incrementally. Whereas new adding lines takes years, decades. Hurdles like permitting, environmental reviews, NIMBYs, getting stuck in the interconnection queue. Weirdly, how utilities were financed blocks retrofits. Public utilities make money by building new stuff. Increasing efficiency actually loses them revenue. Eventually, we have to reboot their businesses models. Meanwhile, we need legislation (and subsidies) to compel retrofits.

tstrimple 3y ago

I know absolutely nothing about transmission lines and the like. I'm curious about whether the asymmetric nature of new lines on top of old line capacities causes problems. Much like you've got to pay attention when mixing 10gb networking devices and 1gb devices.

pixl97 3y ago
I'm assuming you'd replace all the wires on the transmission tower set before applying higher power rates to it. Think of each wire on a power pole like a single wire inside of a cat5 bundle. You wouldn't plug it in to a 10Gb nic until they were all upgraded to cat6/7 capability.
toast0 3y ago
> Much like you've got to pay attention when mixing 10gb networking devices and 1gb devices. Maybe with fiber transceivers, sure. But twisted pair is fine... Some of the 10G equipment doesn't go all the way down to 10M anymore, but just put your old 10M equipment on the 10/100/1G ports, and the 10G equipment on 10G ports. It can be on the same subnet, no big deal, as long as you're not running jumbo packets or at least only using jumbo with MTU discovery. (You can usually even run 10G on cat5e, as long as it's not too long, and not in dense conduit)

specialist 3y ago

Also, retrofitting (reconductoring) can be done today, incrementally. Whereas new adding lines takes years, decades. Hurdles like permitting, environmental reviews, NIMBYs, getting stuck in the interconnection queue. Weirdly, how utilities were financed blocks retrofits. Public utilities make money by building new stuff. Increasing efficiency actually loses them revenue. Eventually, we have to reboot their businesses models. Meanwhile, we need legislation (and subsidies) to compel retrofits.