On 06/15/2016 01:37 PM, Lennart Sorensen via talk wrote:

On Wed, Jun 15, 2016 at 11:01:44AM -0400, Russell Reiter via talk wrote:

[snip]

The electicity usage stays pretty much the same no matter what voltage
you use, although you have some voltage loss over wire distance, which
does give higher voltage a slight benefit, but 750 versus 600 is hardly
enough to really matter.  It all just comes down to voltage * current
in the end.  Incraease voltage and you decrease current and get the
same result.  Maybe the invertor is more efficient with some input
voltages than others, but again, it isn't a big voltage difference so
probably doesn't matter much.

Actually the static power loss goes down as the voltage goes up.

So for example if the streetcar draws 600W at 600V then the current draw is 1A but at 750V the current draw is 0.8 amps.
The overhead line losses are directly proportional to the current flowing through them so there would be roughly a 20% decrease in power loss in the wires.

With an electrical bill like the TTC must have a 20% decrease would be a significant amount of money.

-- 
Alvin Starr                   ||   voice: (905)513-7688
Netvel Inc.                   ||   Cell:  (416)806-0133
alvin@netvel.net              ||