Highlights
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2024-11-28 14:30 Let’s stop there briefly because there’s one specific use case for HVDC which is interconnects between grids which have no physical distance between them. To say, for example, Japan is one of the early installers of HVDC because they have four unique grids and so they have four back to back connectors.
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2024-11-28 14:31 Let’s just assert finally and put the back to back connections to bed. Why would we put HVDC between two grids? Ah yeah, that’s it. So between two AC grids, if they are different synchronous areas, then they have different frequency control centers and the frequencies, even though they should both be centered around 50 or 60 hertz depending on where in the world you are, you’re never quite at 60 hertz. Whether you are above or below depends on the balance between supply and demand in these different systems.
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2024-11-28 14:31 Traditionally grids have grown, they Started in different places and they grew. Some grids they were combined, others were not. And what you can see in North America is that in the east, all of the grids that were built there, they at some point were all synchronized and combined into one large interconnect. In the west there’s another one. And of course, yeah, Texas is doing its own thing, so they stayed separate as well.
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2024-11-28 14:31 Others are longer HVDC cables or lines. Yeah, there’s one real oddity in Europe, which is Portugal and Morocco are actually on a single synchronous grid. And the transmission across the strait is actually H Vac, not hvdc.
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2024-11-28 14:31 They have DC links in Denmark connecting those systems. And for anybody who’s not been to Denmark, it’s only got 5 million people. They’re spread out a bit, but it’s not a big place.
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2024-11-28 14:32 nd there you can clearly see the difference between VSC and lcc. So there is a lot already in the world. I think we are at maybe 350,000 megawatts or 350 gigawatts of converter capacity in the world, the majority of which is lcc. Yep, based at the moment, but there’s virtually no growth anymore in lcc.
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2024-11-28 14:32 And it’s a little bit abstract. The magnetic field interacts more strongly with water and earth. So I would is what I understood. Or at least you have to shield it more to prevent that interaction. So the magnetic field is very hard to shield.
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2024-11-28 14:33 And I’ve also spent some time looking at something called communicated diseases. Not communicable diseases, but diseases where the nocebo effect, asserting that something causes health harm, causes human beings to enter into a health hysteria. Wind turbine syndrome, which you’re possibly familiar with, was a classic communicated disease where especially in the. Well, especially around where you are now, was huge in Ontario. I did a study of lawsuits and health related to wind farms back in 2014, and Ontario is the epicenter of those lawsuits.
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2024-11-28 14:32 There’s all sorts of. Nina Pierpont came up from New England, Sarah Laurie came over from Australia and whipped up hysteria about health among people who are predisposed to hate the devil’s pitchforks. So in my reading of this, electromagnetic frequency spectrum sickness is also a communicated disease. And this is. I’ve got some background in public health and some of these things.
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2024-11-28 14:32 I helped build the world’s most sophisticated communicable disease management solution a few years ago. I’ve talked to epidemiologists. I, you know, done a bunch of work in that space and obviously worked with, you know, global experts on communicated diseases and the psychology of health. So part of my weird background. I’m not worried about the DC’s magnetic fields until you prove to me that it’s a problem.
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2024-11-28 14:30 Yeah, so this is where it gets a little bit abstract, but you mentioned it correctly. It’s called the skin effect, because in AC systems there is a physical effect which pushes the current flow in a conductor to the outer skin of that conductor. Which means that we are not using the full cross sectional area of that conductor. This is related again to the magnetic field.
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2024-11-28 14:30 Okay, China, let’s talk about HVDC in China versus HVDC in the rest of the world. Right. My numbers suggest that China has a lot more HVDC than the rest of the world combined.
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2024-11-28 14:30 You’ve worked in China on HVDC projects. You know, the scale of the projects there, like just three gorges into the rest of the country is enormous. They’ve got the longest, I believe the longest operational HVDC line.
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2024-11-28 14:30 They’ve got the ultra high voltage lines now. So how would you characterize HVDC in China vs. HVDC elsewhere based upon what you know now? Well, it’s definitely they, they went big at it. The highest voltage, the highest capacity, the longest line. Now we see the, that they’re also taking a lead in building grids, multi terminal HVDC grids, including HVDC circuit breakers.
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2024-11-28 14:30 I would say a lot of the Chinese systems have been initially based on European source technology. So Siemens, GE and abb, especially Siemens and abb. But they have built their own HVDC industry now, some part of it based on technology transfer, some of it homegrown. That is now in terms of stated technological ratings going beyond what we’re doing in Europe.
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2024-11-28 08:18 In the same way in Europe we see cross border organizations like ENSO E which is essentially the professional association of the different transmission system operators which has also been given mandates by the European Union to promote cross border transmission planning which is playing a big role in removing the hurdles that are there in approving and planning and approving and allocating costs and creating technical standards for cross border HVDC infrastructure in the US the closest that you get to that would be a NERC.
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2024-11-28 08:24 HVDC is a great way to transport large amounts of power over very long distances, integrate renewables, connect markets with each other at probably the lowest possible cost and lowest environmental impact.
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2024-11-28 08:25 Electrification is by far the biggest efficiency savings. When I do the calculation for the United States, for example, over 50% of primary energy goes away if we use heat pumps, electrified heating and electrified transportation.