Power Lines.

www.arizonaenergy.org...

But underground lines have their vulnerabilities. Flooding can cause widespread failures. When Charley approached land, the Tampa Electric Co. shut down power to the city's downtown businesses because of fears that a saltwater storm surge would damage the underground network. Buried service is superior during high winds, but lines and poles perform better during heavy rains. The roots of a toppling tree also can pull out lines and break connections. Repairmen complain that it's often difficult to locate problems in buried lines that would be obvious if they were strung overhead. Underground lines require special equipment and crews to locate faults and a separate crew to dig up the lines.

The Washington-based Edison Electric Institute released a study this year comparing the two distribution methods. Researchers found that some customers served by 40-year-old overhead lines had better reliability than customers with 20-year-old underground service. Two Maryland utility companies have switched from underground lines back to overhead networks to improve reliability. "When compared to overhead power systems," the report said, "underground power systems tend to have fewer power outages, but the duration of these outages tends to be much longer. The bottom line - reliability benefits associated with burying existing overhead power lines are uncertain and in most instances do not appear to be sufficient to justify the high price tag."

reply to post by Mr Tranny


Wow, thanks for that very informative post.

I have been looking through the news, and I can't find any legitimate alternatives to power lines that could efficiently provide power to large highly populated areas.

There are solar panels, but the technology isn't far enough along to be completely independent of lines yet. It just pisses me off that we can now shoot stuff out of the sky with lasers. Yet we are still using the same power lines from 100 years ago.

reply to post by watchitburn


The problem is a high voltage environment is very harsh. There is few insulating substances that age well when exposed to it. The main four are OIL, GLASS, CERAMIC, and AIR.

Oil filled HV cables are very reliable. They use them in most large cities for the primary underground transmission and distribution systems. But they are expensive and do not scale well to field deployed local systems.

So, without oil, what do you have left to work with? Glass, ceramic, and air. Hence the overhead lines that everyone loves to hate.

Even with solar and other power sources, the energy density of the load, and the bad disposition of the weather will require that large sums of power be moved large distances to move power from the wide open spaces where it’s generated, to the dense population areas where it’s most heavily consumed. In the world of renewable energy, we will be needing more long distance power lines, not less.

reply to post by Mr Tranny


At least until someone develops a small, stable, and durable means of generation electricity locally.

But I think that is still a long ways off. That is if the energy suppliers ever let it hit the public anyway.

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
reply to post by phroziac

 

Tesla coils can light up lightbulbs that arent even plugged into anything that are beyond the distance they can arc to. Theres a famous picture of tesla holding a lightbulb thats lit up......llno arcs.

I am aware of that much. I was asking about the physics of how that works.

Oh, ok. Well, i dont know how it works. But i thought you were implying it cant be done. I do know its similar to how radios work. The radio signal has enough power to operate a crystal radio...