Phasor Rotating and Direction: Positive ABC vs Negative CBA
I have seen references like this while working and I was hoping to get some clarification regarding the topic in general (less of an academic question and more of a real-world question). I am aware of the two ABC and ACB 3 phase system rotations. Beyond those, only ‘versions’ of those two exist while maintaining the B lags A & C lags B and A leads B & B leads C (and visa versa: C lags A … A leads C, etc). Which I always understood from the importance of my utility using ACB rotation (using it due to PG&E’s practice of it and therefore it prevailing in our area).
But when I’ve seen BCA or CAB, I wonder WHY?! Why create/wire a system with B or C as the first phase (or reference phase) of the 3-phase power system? When, since the phasors are always rotating and (if balanced) they are equal magnitude and equal displacement, why ever cause that possible confusion point/issue?
Knowing which phase connects with which phase seems only useful when finding values of the other two phases in a system or where they will be at specific instances in time/operation condition (basically for academic purposes). And for real-world purposes for physically connecting things that correlate with other neighboring entities phases, for synching systems. Or when passing relay reports back/forth and knowing when a phase is identified, how that relates to your own phase connections.
But why do it in the first place? I think an ABC will be BCA in 1/3rd of a second (with B having a zero degree angle reference, [if A started at 0 degrees at t=0] and it's a positive sequence rotating system). So why insist on other phases being referenced to a different phase other than A? What purpose?
Or am I missing something here?