Cool graphic of the grid systems.

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Very cool!! Thanks for posting the link.

Phenomenal amount of overview of the North Am grid situation.
 
I find it interesting that the southeast does not get any new lines. I feel somewhat left out.

Could it be due to hurricanes that the poco's have had to upgrade the system. Or are the poco's just better managed?
 
I wonder why all of the new long distance transmission lines are proposed to be 765kV AC and not 1000kV DC?
 
SmithBuilt said:
I find it interesting that the southeast does not get any new lines. I feel somewhat left out.

Could it be due to hurricanes that the poco's have had to upgrade the system. Or are the poco's just better managed?
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The southeast appears to have the most extensive existing grid if you look closely.
 
That was cool. I have been looking for a site like that for a while, thanks!

A few questions for you gurus.

What is an AC-DC-AC link what is it for? I know some power supplies do this for PQ but why a transmission line?

Why a 1000kv DC line?
 
Lots of hydro power in these parts (Pac. NW)

They've been gradually shutting down and removing some of the smaller dams here in Oregon. Most were obsolete, but it seems rather counterintuitive to be pulling out clean energy sources in this day and age. They certainly aren't building any new ones.

I understand and share the concern with salmon spawning and such but there are plenty of painful energy decisions that need to be made right now... this is one of them.
 
mikeames said:
That was cool. I have been looking for a site like that for a while, thanks!

A few questions for you gurus.

What is an AC-DC-AC link what is it for? I know some power supplies do this for PQ but why a transmission line?

Why a 1000kv DC line?
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There are no solid ties between the three interconnect regions. The regions are not exactly matched in frequency and the converter is used to match them. If you connect them directly you will let the magic smoke out of something.
High voltage DC has less line loss than AC. It only has resistance, not impedance. You also only use two sets of conductors, where the AC system requires 3 sets. Here is a link to some info on long distance DC transmission. Due to the cost of the inverters at each end, DC transmission is more expensive to install for short runs. However for longer distances, the lower cost of the line installation for the DC system offsets the inverter cost and makes the DC system cheaper to install.
 
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cschmid said:
thanks for the link.

I am a hydro producer fan and believe it is cheaper then wind. anyone have any sources for this type of info..
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Honestly I couldn't rattle off any cost analysis comparison, but I believe both have obvious benefits and drawbacks. I don't think wind (and solar for that matter) will pan out to be effective for large scale centralized generation systems. They just can't accomodate grid needs without a more solid backup like hydro or.... yech.... coal. I think in a few decades we'll probably see the applications of wind and solar refined and it will probably turn out to be most cost effective when utilized in distributed generation scenarios (smaller scale, like individual buildings or maybe a neighborhood). The relatively meager output just won't justify the cost of large plants.

Of course, technology will probably advance leaps and bounds and render my opinion moot.

One technology I've been loosely following is wave power. Here in Newport, Oregon, a couple of companies have determined that the coastline and wave patterns are ideal for wave power generation. One of them even deployed a test wave power buoy last year - apparently it worked better than expected as far as generating power, but it wound up sinking (ha!) during one of our gnarley winter storms. Trial and error.

I foresee a lot of tough decisions having to be made as oil production dwindles. Dams are great, but what are the impacts of the ensuing reservoir on the riparian ecosystem? What about marine life migration? Nuclear is good if applied properly (and I expect to see a flurry of nuclear plants going up sooner or later), but what about the waste? A fellow electrician thinks we should just launch all the nuclear waste into space. Great idea, but what if the launch goes awry? Or the rocket blows up? It's happened before, and not just once. Wind and solar are good but it would take much too massive of an infrastructure expenditure to make it even viable amongst competing energy sources. Natural gas is okay but it will just postpone the fossil fuel situation - it's not renewable. Coal is just archaic and ridiculous.

I think what it boils down to is that 6,000,000,000 people is just too many :D
 
don_resqcapt19 said:
There are no solid ties between the three interconnect regions. The regions are not exactly matched in frequency and the converter is used to match them. If you connect them directly you will let the magic smoke out of something.
High voltage DC has less line loss than AC. It only has resistance, not impedance. You also only use two sets of conductors, where the AC system requires 3 sets. Here is a link to some info on long distance DC transmission. Due to the cost of the inverters at each end, DC transmission is more expensive to install for short runs. However for longer distances, the lower cost of the line installation for the DC system offsets the inverter cost and makes the DC system cheaper to install.
Click to expand...

Very interesting so DC does have a place in power transmission.
 
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