Redleg,
Is Ray Kaufman an alternate username of yours, or do we have two forum members each with 50 years of experience building power plants?
“I am not paskening”
But you seem to be criticizing psakim.
“It is beyond question that most of the reponsa concerning electricity ere based on incomplete or misunderstood information.”
I’m guessing you might not like this answer, but what I heard a rav once say: the gedolim knew that electricity was assur for Shabbos, based on their expertise of Shabbos. So having a detailed knowledge of how exactly electricity works (or even which exact melacha it violates) is immaterial.
“The operators melacha consists of sitting and watching a computer monitor.”
Really? They never even press a key, or move the mouse, or anything? What an awesome job.
“Please note that I have been building and operating power plants for 50 years and I have a pretty good idea how they work. “
Appeal to authority fallacy. Ray Kaufman (if not you) also claims 50 years of experience building power plants, and he writes, “As a simple example, I have seen articles and Piskei Teshuva that refer to a “flow of electrons” This is not correct. Electrons don’t flow. The remain in their in their respective atoms.” This is simply not true. Electrons do have a net flow – that’s what an electrical current is. They just flow quite slowly, just over an inch a minute in typical house wiring. Given that the protons and neutrons of the copper wiring do not move, then yes, actually, the electrons do leave their respective atoms.