Nnaemeka

HVDC Transmission One of the biggest changes for future infrastructure is the emergence of High Voltage DC transmission. As the story goes, in the original 1880s build out it was Edison and Westinghouse who battled with AC and DC technologies for electricity distribution systems. AC won the day, because it was the only way to move power any meaningful distance. Back then, DC was limited to just 1 mile. But then semiconductors came along… In 1957, high power semiconductors completely upended transmission technologies. Now DC outperforms AC on distance, cost and efficiency. Modern DC has no reactive power losses, no skin effect, and use 50% less copper. The semiconductor technology breakthroughs came about in the 50s and entered commercial markets worldwide in the 1970s. But then Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) and Voltage Source Converters (VSCs) also hit commercial markets in the 1990s. Countries that developed before 1999 are mostly still stuck using an AC backbone, but countries that developed later had the advantage of building their most valuable machine (the grid), on a DC backbone. A DC backbone allows asynchronous transmission over transcontinental distance. Some DC systems today stretch 2,000 miles, connecting day and night, connecting sunshine and wind. HVDC technology today is able to connect countries separated by seas and oceans, creating new markets and exchanges for balancing power. There’s even a project to connect to UK to Morocco, laying cables around the Iberian peninsula. The ability to lay HVDC cables in seawater simplifies the deployment somewhat as countries with highly ossified infrastructure and land ownership can shift huge power volumes up and down their coastlines. Moving power East-West arbitrages diurnal cycles and moving power North-South arbitrages seasonal variances. The capacity keeps rising too, with companies already marketing cables able to carry 3.5GW. In China they are laying UHVDC where voltages of 1.1 million volts are common. In the 2030s we will see multi-million volt cables being laid across oceans, which starts to get interesting for the system architecture of grids. It’s not crazy to consider that some sort of pan transmission system emerges with huge asynchronous arteries laid in corridors that carry electrical power. Why will this happen? Well today electricity prices are highly heterogeneous, industrialised nations pay around $50/MWh but developing nations pay $100-200/MWh and in poorer nations it costs $350/MWh. Around 1.5 bn people enjoy cheap energy, whereas 6.5 bn people live with high electricity costs. Most of the problems in the world; war, disease, climate, population, they are actually poverty problems, and at the root of the poverty problem is cheap electricity (there are still some idiots out there). Almost every other major problem in the world stems from the lack of cheap and abundant power. Even the expansion at the industrial frontier is rapidly becoming limited by the availability of power.