Dedicated power

jea48"There are at least 5 million of them across the US. They are quite common in large cities in the north. Downtown NYC is full of them. In many cases below the sidewalks in front of buildings. How is water kept out of the vaults? Sump Pumps for one."

Thank you very much for this information which I find "suspect" as a matter of practice but it explains a lot the US has a reputation for very unreliable electric service and having now done some Googling on this purely for curiosity I see that flooding has often caused massive power outages sometimes lasting for weeks!

Very unreliable electric service?
Thank you very much for this information, which I find "suspect". Good grief. Flooding has caused a lot of problems, depending on the severity. The solution, of course, would be to not allow anyone to live near any of the thousands of miles of seacoast, nor near any rivers or streams. I think if we displace 50-100 million citizens living along the Mississippi and Missouri drainages, for a start, we can nip this problem in the bud.

I'm sure they make transformers that can withstand flooding, but will the power companies cough up the money for them?

You may add additional ground rods to the original circuit however.

That is correct.  It's the use of the word "isolated" that worried me.  You may add any number of ground rods, so long as they are bonded to the same ground that is bonded to neutral at the service entrance.

I forgot to mention:

The most common cause of systems sounding harsh when you turn them up is often room acoustics. Sit up close to your speaker and see if it sounds much less harsh.  If it does, it's your room.

Best,

e