High-Temp Superconductors To Connect Power Grids 332
physburn writes "Somewhere in a triangle between Roswell (UFO) NM, Albuquerque (Left Turn) NM, and Amarillo (Do you know the way?) TX, a 22.5 square mile triangle of High Temperature Superconductor pipeline is to be built. Each leg of the triangle can carry 5GW of electricity. The purpose to load-balance and sell electricity between America's three power grids. Previously the Eastern Grid, Western Grid and Texan Grid have been separate, preventing cheap electricity being sold from one end of America to the other. The Tres Amiga Superstation, as it is to be called, will finally connect the three grids. The superstation is also designed to link renewable solar and wind power in the grids, and is to use HTS wire from American Superconductor. Some 23 years after its invention, today HTS comes of age. "
Five jiggawatts?! (Score:4, Funny)
That's enough to power slightly more than four time machines.
Shocking times we live in (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder if there is a difference in the potential of this technology and other high throughput power transferring systems. I think being able to distribute power has the capacity to put us on the road to using more electricity as opposed to oil based fuel. That's all we've needed: a kick in the joules to get us on a better path.
Shocking times indeed. I just need to remember to stay grounded; You can never know exactly when and where technological progress will come from.
Re:Five jiggawatts?! (Score:4, Funny)
Excellent. Now we can go into the future and kick Higgs Boson's ass for going back in time and sabotaging the LHC.
I love slashdot. (Score:5, Funny)
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Limiting factors (Score:2)
My guess would be inductance would be one limiting factor but probably more limiting would be the abilities of the various grids to pump power in or out across the AC/DC and DC/AC converters.
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Perhaps the components which are plugged in at either end of the superconductor?
Re:I love slashdot. (Score:4, Informative)
A superconductor has a critical current, if you go above the critical current, the superconductivity breaks down (and you are screwed). The critical current density depends on: material, temperature, and the magnetic field (basically, the critical current decreases when the temperature or magnetic field increases).
Since there is always a magnetic field present (the earth magnetic field), there is always a maximum current a superconductor can carry.
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Superconductors break down in large enough magnetic fields. A larger current generates a stronger magnetic field. So too much current and it stops superconducting.
Re:I love slashdot. (Score:5, Informative)
Not sure if it'd be more or less now. Houses and HVAC are more efficient, but people tend to use more power when they're active now.
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Very nice, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a great thing, but the cynical part (85.6%) of me wonders if this means we'll now be able to have national blackouts rather than just regional ones.
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Superconducting grid interconnects (and HVDC in general) make power grids more stable because they eliminate synchronization requirements.
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Re:Very nice, but... (Score:4, Funny)
I doubt it. In fact, the people working on it probably submitted this story and are reading all the comments right now, taking notes as they go.
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Has there ever been an instance of an entire regional grid going out? I mean it certainly made the news when a large portion of California had rolling blackouts, so I'm just assuming that if the entire Western Grid went out, I would have heard of it, and I haven't.
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Well, they did take out about half of new england, including large portions of canada several years ago. However, that was not a grid issue, but a computer communication issue, and that's been fixed and made far more redundant. It was an accident of coincidence that allowed improperly timed alarms to cascade through a communication network that shut the grid down because it thought it was fighting off electric backpressure and trying top prevent a feedback that would have blown transformers and possibly g
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Less likely to ahve any black outs. In fact, the whole fake rolling blackout thing Enron did wouldn't be possible had this been set up becasue the state would ahve more avenues to get power.
Bigger, better, faster, more... (Score:2)
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Let's hope it brings new life to New Mexico (Score:3, Interesting)
I can only hope this could begin to revitalize that area of the country. While I'm not a native, I drove through there a while back and it was terribly, terribly depressing. Run-down houses and empty shops in lots of towns, not a pretty sight.
Any native New Mexicans who can give us the low-down?
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I drive thru Clovis every now and then, and always stop for fuel. It's a convenient shortcut from central Texas to I-40, which I find preferable to I-10 when doing a TX to SF Bay RV run. Clovis is in pretty dire circumstances, and it's likely to get worse when the Air Force base closes. I doubt this will do much for their job market.
Re:Let's hope it brings new life to New Mexico (Score:5, Informative)
Native and current resident. New Mexico is no different than the rest of the states. The rural areas are seeing a steady migration out, the urban areas are seeing a steady migration in.
Some areas like Farmington (North west) or Artesia, Roswell, Carlsbad (east side) are highly susceptible to boom/bust natural gas/oil cycles. Areas like Albuquerque are chugging right along and were hit about the national average by the recent recession. Most of the state is agricultural and is slowly sliding into oblivion like the rest of the nation's non corporate-run agriculture though not merely so hard hit as the wheat belt region.
The current governor is a bit of a twit at times but he's done a decent job getting some higher tech interest in NM. The combination of alternative energy as both a producer of energy and producer of materials, light rail interconnect for Rio Grande corridor and of course the space port may end up putting NM in an promising position.
The state isn't overly rich in resources/industry and agriculture is not a money making proposition for any state/country. The state's future is either in energy or tech or it's doomed to a tail end of the pack future much like most other low pop poor states.
In short I think you've overstated the destitute nature of the state compared to most other comparable states. On the other hand I agree that this newest venture is yet another energy/tech venture within the state which is needed or your observation regarding the state may be prophetically accurate.
Then again all the above it's pretty much true for the nation as a whole.
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Lived there for 7 years in the 90s. Discovered that "New Mexico" was spanish for "eternal poverty." Discovered that my well paid job in San Francisco brought minimum wage in NM. Still, the place is pretty. Good place to visit and commune with nature. At the moment though, the economy is a notch above third world and so was the wealth distribution (i.e. a few rich white folks, a lot of poor white and mexican folks). Santa Fe has this, particularly.
Where? (Score:3, Informative)
Don't you mean San Jose [lyricsfreak.com]?
Re:Where? (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah - they kind of stretched it. Neil Sedaka's song has:
Is this the way to Amarillo?
Every night I’ve been hugging my pillow
dreaming dreams of Amarillo
and sweet Marie who waits for me.
Show me the way to Amarillo
I’ve been weepin’ like a willow
crying over Amarillo
and sweet Marie who waits for me.
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I remember that song was sung by Tony Christie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Christie [wikipedia.org]
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The submitter obviously didn't know the way to San Jose and instead of admitting he was wrong changed the song.
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Don't you mean San Jose?
I think the submitter meant "Is this the way?"
"(Is this the way to) Amarillo" was recorded by Tony Christie and turned into a big hit in the UK.
This YouTube video just added to the popularity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI5y1cNpbYo [youtube.com]
Tres Amiga (Score:4, Funny)
Lucky Day: Wherever there is injustice, you will find us.
Ned Nederlander: Wherever there is suffering, we'll be there.
Dusty Bottoms: Wherever liberty is threatened, you will find...
Lucky Day, Ned Nederlander, Dusty Bottoms: The Three Amigos!
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My spanish may be failing me, but "tres amiga" is just wrong. Should've been "tres amigas"
No you're right. I mean, it's the same as in English. "The Three Friend"? It's a typo in the summary; in TFA you can see it's spelled correctly.
But it's Amigas, so it's feminine. Lucky Day still works (if you want your daughter to be a stripper). Ned could be Nadine. And Dusty? I guess that could be a woman's name?
I know amiga ! (Score:3, Funny)
Sure Amiga still rocks !
Who will build an Atari ST grid ?
Uh.. Roswell? (Score:4, Funny)
Seriously, Roswell?
More likely this is going to be the supragrid where the huge alien craft will come to suck our energy away. (Think "V" The mini-series)
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depends, what's your life worth?
shapes (Score:3, Funny)
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Here's the Tres Amigas [amsc.com] design, via the AMSC site.
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Super Conductor [feeddistiller.com] Feed @ Feed Distiller [feeddistiller.com]
blackouts (Score:4, Informative)
'Cause it's not enough to black out just the northeast during a cascade failure; we have to black out all of conus at the same time.
You're not safe just because your state is an energy exporter. Just like a sudden spike in demand, a sudden huge drop in demand forces generating plants into emergency-safe mode, shutting them down. You're safe only if your part of the grid neither imports nor exports more than a small percentage of the total power in play.
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Re:blackouts (Score:5, Informative)
Does that honestly seem to you like such a huge and difficult problem
Yes, as a matter of fact, it does.
During a sudden large drop in demand you have fractions of a second before the turbines spike the hell out of the voltage frying unprotected electronics and maybe a few seconds before the turbines start to tear themselves apart. That's how much time the grid controller has to receive messages from and analyze the system state across the entire grid and decide which turbines across the entire grid to slam the emergency brakes on so that the remaining ones are properly loaded.
It isn't possible, not with any kind of safety margin. As a result, the grid isn't built that way. Instead, each generating plant has a local safety system on the turbines. If the demand changes faster than the speed regulator can compensate they go into emergency safe mode and shut down entirely, after which it takes days to run through the startup checklist and come back online. The grid controller can affect this only indirectly - by stabilizing the demand hitting each generating plant before the safety systems trip.
Which means that any time a sufficiently large capacity set of transmission lines fails, that failure cascades through the system dropping plant after plant.
This isn't just speculation, by the way. Go read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003 [wikipedia.org] . When the cascade failure finally gets underway, it moves really fast. 150 seconds for the whole blackout in 2003. There's no time to fix it. Either your local portion of the grid transmits or receives so little power from the rest that it can instantly disconnect and absorb the change in demand or else it collapses along with the rest.
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Personally I see one bad cascade failure amongst years of presumably lower energy prices and more efficient u
Re:blackouts (Score:4, Informative)
I used to do component failure analysis in power stations and I really do not have a clue where you get that gem from, especially since the turbines are still going to be connected to very big heavy generators that are not going to be able to change speed quickly one way or another.
Please elaborate to prove that it isn't just manipulative alarmist utter bullshit that you are excreting.
Re:blackouts (Score:4, Informative)
Really what the hell are you talking about? Turbines spike? Emergency systems include massive dump resisters at the station I was at. Response time of the *automated* systems was under a second, while the many tons of generator damped out anything quicker than that and these still the steam vent valves (you can throttle the turbines faster than the boiler). A full shutdown startup cycle was 6 hours tops and we had five units, so we would not have to do the full cycle on all of them (one or two are at idle depending on maintainance schedules). And that was a slow full steam plant. Gas turbines can do it under an hour I believe (the bottoming cycle takes longer IIRC).
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You're safe only if your part of the grid neither imports nor exports more than a small percentage of the total power in play.
Luckily the interchange is only 5 GW... which only requires maybe one percent of the eastern and western plants to generate. TX on the other hand is probably screwed, that is probably like 5/6 their generating capacity (Don't really know, but how many plants can little ole TX have, anyway?)
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According to http://mospublic.ercot.com/ercot/jsp/frequency_control.jsp [ercot.com] Texas is currently (as of when I checked the page) using 35.3 GW. Of which, 34.9 GW is generated in-grid.
A lot of power (Score:5, Informative)
Each leg of the triangle can carry 5GW of electricity.
5GW is a lot of power; to put that into perspective, the entire state of New York uses about 30GW at peak load on a hot summer day; the great power of Niagara Falls gives us about 5GW (Canadian + US generators).
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Yup - just think about what would happen if any part of this conduit warmed up - talk about a MASSIVE heat dump!
Or, for that matter think about what would happen if somebody took the cable and twisted it into a coil - now you suddenly have a HUGE electromagnet.
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Yup - just think about what would happen if any part of this conduit warmed up - talk about a MASSIVE heat dump!
Thats what FCL's are for
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fault_current_limiter [wikipedia.org]
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Would this even do anything in a quench? Suppose that power line is carrying 1 GA (giga-amps) during normal use. The FCL would prevent damage to the line if for some reason it shorted and tried to pull 2 GA.
However, if there were a quench along the line, the current would actually drop, not rise (resistance increases dramatically). An FCL seems to protect against a short, but during normal operation a transmission line IS a short. The issue isn't that the overall line is carrying too much current. The
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To add to your perspective, the state of Texas produces and consumes--by a wide margin for both--far more electrity than any other state or territory in the United States. Full summer peaks can reach average state-wide usages of around 97GW.
That's especially impressive to me considering the Texas grid is almos
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Or to put it another way, it's enough to power your time machine *four times*!
Modify the phase variance (Score:5, Informative)
The three power grids are out of phase with each other. Are they doing a AC->DC->AC conversion? It was my understanding that the biggest technical hurdle to connecting the grids was the difficult problem of shifting the phase of one grid to another.
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Re:Modify the phase variance (Score:5, Informative)
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SuperConductor [feeddistiller.com] Feed @ Feed Distiller [feeddistiller.com]
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You'll actually get reactance (imaginary part of impedance, specifically inductance in this case), not resistance. But you don't actually lose energy through reactance like you do resistance (no power is converted to heat) unless there's another magnetic field to interfere. So yes, you could put AC through a superconductor. There's just little reason to when you have very little resistance and DC is usually easier to deal with.
Re:Modify the phase variance (Score:5, Interesting)
You'll actually get reactance (imaginary part of impedance, specifically inductance in this case), not resistance. But you don't actually lose energy through reactance like you do resistance (no power is converted to heat) unless there's another magnetic field to interfere. So yes, you could put AC through a superconductor. There's just little reason to when you have very little resistance and DC is usually easier to deal with.
No, AC is easier to deal with because transformers are simpler than what amount to really big semiconductor VFDs.
The real gain, is you spend megabucks on insulation for the highest voltage the line will experience. On AC, thats the peak voltage of the sinewave. But the DC equivalent of an AC current is the RMS, and it's only about 71% of the peak (well, exactly its 1/2**.5) So that means you can push about 30% higher voltage thru a DC cable before it arcs over, and because P=E**2/R you get the square of 30% more power...
There are also some other issues, but in general, you can push about twice as many watts thru a cable at DC than thru it at AC.
Since the cost of the cable is huge compared to the cost of the station gear, it makes sense to double your capacity by using DC.
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Yes, the lines are DC with converters at each node that connects to the indivuidual grids.
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The three power grids are out of phase with each other. Are they doing a AC->DC->AC conversion?
Correct. From TFA:
The superconducting material is required because they are using an AC->DC->AC conversion. It's very difficult to transmit that much power using direct current without a superconductor.
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The three power grids are out of phase with each other. Are they doing a AC->DC->AC conversion? It was my understanding that the biggest technical hurdle to connecting the grids was the difficult problem of shifting the phase of one grid to another.
Yes, they are. The superconducting cables are running high-voltage DC.
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And of course reconfigure it to emit a tachyon pulse.
Uh... Do you know the way... (Score:2)
...to Santa Fe?
Amarillo doesn't even rhyme!
What about (Yellow Rose)? That would make sense.
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D'oh! A quick Google and I find that that song was San José. Weird. In my head, it's always been Santa Fé. Man, the 70's were a long time ago.
This is when... (Score:2)
Back to the Future (Score:2)
Isn't think just one giant Flux Capacitor [wikipedia.org]?
Where are the hoverboards?
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You might be interested in this article:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-hoverboard-lie-how-back-to-the-future-ruined-childhood/ [cracked.com]
Why 22 sq miles? (Score:3, Interesting)
The article mentions a triangle of 8.5Miles per side, but not being used to dealing with large amounts of power.. (pretty much anything over 120V is over my head).. why do the superconducting pipes have to be that long?
Wouldn't it be cheaper to have the connections closer? or at that level of power, could there really be arc's 5 miles long? (or are there other issues related to crazy sine wave stuff?)
And really, I hope someday they decide to build one somewhere else too, like Colorado, or even further north. Then at least there are multiple points of failure.. (and if anyone gave a crap about texas, they would be invited into one of the other grids already, but obviously they think they are special...)
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What really is needed is LONGER super conducting DC corridors across this country not shorter ones. Use these DC long haul corridors to interconnect various existing AC grids allowing a high level of power distribution/load sharing with lower power transmission losses.
Anyway ignore the 22 sq miles tag line... This is just three DC trunks going between three AC/DC conversion substations that are connected to each of three existing AC grids.
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The are transferring a LOT of power over these links using direct current. The only way to do that without a high-level of line loss, huge heat issues and/or insanely high-voltages is by using super conducting material.
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HydroQuebec's 735kV grid has over 11 thousand kilometres of lines, and suffers 4.5 to 8 percent loss depending on environmental and operating conditions.
The power loss over 8.5 miles should be inconsequential...
And this couldn't be done with copper because (Score:2)
...
Just wondering why superconductors suddenly make this feasable. 20 square miles just doesn't resolve to a very big number when looking at the length of the wire.
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...
Just wondering why superconductors suddenly make this feasable. 20 square miles just doesn't resolve to a very big number when looking at the length of the wire.
"The HTS cable system installed in LIPA’s power grid contains hair-thin, ribbon-shaped HTS wires that conduct 150 times the electricity of similar sized copper wires. This power density advantage enables transmission-voltage HTS cables to utilize far less wire and yet conduct up to five times more power – in a smaller right of way – than traditional copper-based cables."
quoted from this article
http://www.azom.com/news.asp?newsID=12710 [azom.com]
Re:And this couldn't be done with copper because (Score:5, Informative)
That's why electric companies sink so much money into transformers. You step up the electricity to high voltage / low current for transmission, then back to low voltage / high current for consumption.
"Forward Looking Comment" (Score:2)
Found this on the bottom of the article
Any statements in this release about future expectations, plans and prospects for the company, including our expectations regarding the future financial performance of the company and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will" and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. There are a number of important factors that could cause a
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That sort of disclosure is on almost every statement that is issued by companies that are regulated by the SEC or some other regulatory body. Go look at any company's annual report, quarterly SEC filings, etc. Even press releases might have that sort of language on it. You basically have to try to spell out everything that could possibly go wrong so that stupid investors who don't understand that every business carries potential risks don't sue you later.
Where? (Score:5, Informative)
It's bullshit (Score:2)
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Maybe one day my electric bill will go down and I can leave all of my computers running... By then SRP will have raised the rates anyway.
See. This is why I still prefer a solar revolution than a nuclear one.
There is nothing wrong with nuclear and I'll be happy the day they get a viable fusion reactor up and running, but you still have to pay someone for that power and generally utility companies always raise rates rather than lower them because they are public companies.
The only way to offset that is to mak
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I'm more of a nuclear revolution person.
Solar is great as a suppliment, but you need to still provide a steady, reliable base load to the public as a whole. Some buildings stay in operation 24 hours a day, and I don't just mean businesses: hospitals, police stations for example.
People need power at night (sorry solar) on calm days (sorry wind) away from flowing water (sorry hydro-) and hot spots (sorry geothermal).
If cost allows one day, sure, I'll likely pick up some solar panels but on a nationwide scale
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People need power at night (sorry solar) on calm days (sorry wind) away from flowing water (sorry hydro-) and hot spots (sorry geothermal).
If cost allows one day, sure, I'll likely pick up some solar panels but on a nationwide scale, nuclear is a bigger priority.
Well, the alternative is a smarter grid, where power from windy places, hot places, and sunny places can be transmitted to where it's needed, while high-efficiency storage technology (eg, gravitational kinetic storage, compressed air, flywheels, etc
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Solar is great as a suppliment, but you need to still provide a steady, reliable base load to the public as a whole. Some buildings stay in operation 24 hours a day, and I don't just mean businesses: hospitals, police stations for example.
To be fair, using solar power on home rooftops most likely won't take people off the grid any time soon but it will mitigate the power grid strain they do provide so that the large facilities like hospitals and factories (who can't reasonably use solar power for the needs)
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Central Point of Failure.
Attention terrorists: we have a new target to aim for.
The USA's infrastructure is full of bottlenecks and chokepoints.
Internet/phone/gas/power, airlines, stock markets, highways, warehouses, ports, payment processing, etc etc etc.
This article comes to mind [washingtonpost.com]:
"Classify my dissertation? Crap. Does this mean I have to redo my PhD?" he said. "They're worried about national security. I'm worried about getting my degree." For academics, there always has been the imperative to publish or perish. In Gorman's case, there's a new concern: publish and perish.
He eventually
Re:Four words: (Score:4, Insightful)
How does connecting three previously (more or less) independent power grids produce a single point of failure? If you blow up this thing you end up with... what exists now.
Re:Four words: (Score:5, Funny)
Oh no, they've disabled our ability to sell electricity from one grid to another!
Re:Four words: (Score:5, Insightful)
Meh, why is that getting flagged as insightful.
The current cynicism that any improvement in infrastructure is
a) only for the money
b) going to ruin the planet
c) a target for terrorists
d) too late
is getting really old.
The proposal allows for better distribution of power generation across the continent. Even if it was a target for terrorism so what. If you want to curl up in a little ball because the terrorists might get you knock yourself out.
BTW, knocking this section out doesn't take all 3 grids down.
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BTW, knocking this section out doesn't take all 3 grids down.
You mean it doesn't necessarily take all 3 grids down, if it's not designed to.
Well, I would design it to. And I would have a big switch where one setting was "America On" and the other would say "America Off". And it would be on the outside of the fence.
Which is probably why they never let me design anything. :(
Technical questions (Score:5, Interesting)
...The current cynicism that any improvement in infrastructure is a) only for the money b) going to ruin the planet c) a target for terrorists d) too late
is getting really old.
The proposal allows for better distribution of power generation across the continent. Even if it was a target for terrorism so what. ...
How about this criticism: poorly described technology from a dubious source.
First of all, I don't think this interconnect is intended to prevent one of the three major grids going down...if that were to happen, you'd want to disconnect the other two pronto so they don't go down with it. This is being sold as a way to efficiently move cheap electricity to places that need it and are willing to buy it. The article refers to it as a "renewable energy market hub". That's fine, in principle (and who dares oppose anything with the word "renewable" in it?).
But how does it work? There's generalities about how electrical transmissions and interconnects between the major power grids work, but nothing really about the superconducting cable, and why it's better than regular cable. That's not too surprising, if you consider that this is "financial news" aimed at getting people to buy stock in this exciting new venture. What's more disturbing is that when you follow the link to the company that's supposed to be doing this wonderful thing—American Superconductor—you don't get any better answers to these questions.
You do realize that we're not talking about room temperature superconductors here, right? "High temperature superconductors" is a relative term. Unless they have indeed invented something totally new and kept it totally secret, what we're talking about is a pipeline carrying liquid nitrogen with some superconducting tape wrapped around it. (See, for example, this more informative article from another company selling the same thing [google.com]. (PDF!)
One major issue right off the bat is how much of the efficiency gained by using the superconductor is consumed by the coolant system. The article doesn't say exactly how long these superconducting conduits will be, and it seems you still need AC/DC/AC conversion, so what's the real gain over using regular cables, especially if we're only talking a mile or so?
It's also not clear just who is paying for this project. Is it the State of Oklahoma? The US Government (in "stimulation" mode)? Is it a private venture? Is it really a done and financed deal? This is a most unsatisfactory article, and I think some cynicism is warranted.
Disclaimer: The fact that I am a Texan and intend to give up my megawatts only if you pry them from my cold, dead fingers has not in the least influenced my position on this matter.
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Central Point of Failure.
Actually, if you read the article, sounds like they're wiring it "delta" as opposed to "wye" so any individual cut merely reroutes around the long way... And yes I am very well aware that "delta" and "wye" means something very specific w/ regards to three phase power, I was just using the names for topological reference.
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Central Point of Failure.
Attention terrorists: we have a new target to aim for.
Maybe I'm missing something, but if this new thing failed wouldn't the system just degrade to what it currently is today?
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Those damn United Statesmans, thinking they can refer to their own country however they please.
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The Americas: North America, Central America, South America.
NorthAmerica: Canada, the US, and Mexico.
Mexico: the United States of Mexico
America: the United States of America.
Is it that hard to understand?
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There is Canada. There is the United States of America. There is the United Mexican States.
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They charge the same and rake in more profit.
Re:What is the motivation for power companies? (Score:5, Insightful)
You're not right. From TFS/TFA, there's currently no link between the three different power grids. The incentive for the corporations to back this is the potential for them to save money (by buying power from other grids during peak times, rather than building more power plants to make up for the shortfall), and the potential to make money (by selling power to other grids during off-peak hours).
As an example, TX can sell power to the north during the winter to help cover the increased cost of heating, and they can buy power in the summer to help cover the cost of air conditioning. Also, the East can sell to the West when it's 1am on the East Coast (most people in bed, off-peak hours), but still 10pm in California. Likewise, California can sell to the east when it's 5am there (people are still asleep), but 8am in the east.
All in all, it should make a *huge* difference for their bottom lines, while also helping the environment by reducing the amount of power that we have to generate. :)
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There are individual bilateral HVDC links between each pair of grids. But this will be the first time all three will be tied together in a single system.
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