Cancun Airport Eliminates Fee For Multiple Devices

[ggunn]

Yes, if it is connected to those loads.

Which is virtually always the case when there is a widespread outage. Most homeowners do not shut off their main breaker when the power goes out, so all their loads are still connected to the unenergized grid. Anyone who connects a generator to their home without some sort of isolating device like a main breaker lockout or transfer switch would be trying to light up their city with it, which will shut it down. The only time that doing that could endanger electrical workers is when and if the power is out for just their house. Of course it is possible, hence the rules against it. It's UL1741 for PV systems.

 

[ReefHound]

I find it hard to believe that linemen entrust their lives to the good behaviour of the general population. In a large power outage where you might have 100k generators running, you're going to have lots and lots of people, especially in poorer areas, who can't afford to drop a grand on an electrician to install an interlock and inlet. They are going to use the "poor man's inlet" of plugging into the 30A dryer outlet to backfeed the house, and thus the grid. And yet, I've never heard one news story of a lineman being injured because of this.

 

[ggunn]

I find it hard to believe that linemen entrust their lives to the good behaviour of the general population. In a large power outage where you might have 100k generators running, you're going to have lots and lots of people, especially in poorer areas, who can't afford to drop a grand on an electrician to install an interlock and inlet. They are going to use the "poor man's inlet" of plugging into the 30A dryer outlet to backfeed the house, and thus the grid. And yet, I've never heard one news story of a lineman being injured because of this.

It is indeed highly unlikely; for one thing, if you plug a generator into your service without isolating it, unless maybe the outage is at the transformer nearest your house, your generator is going to see a virtual dead short and shut down immediately. For another, if 100k people try to connect generators to the grid at the same time, the generators will not be synchronized, so they will either shut down or blow up.

But it isn't totally impossible that a lineman could be working only on the secondary of the transformer that powers your house and get hurt; I am pretty sure there has been a case or two where that happened. Grid tied solar inverters are designed to shut off when the power goes out, and it is illegal to connect a generator to your house panel without a transfer switch or lockout kit that isolates your service from the grid. Of course, someone could simply shut off their main breaker and get away with it; that's all a lockout kit does.

This stuff is what I do.