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posted by martyb on Wednesday April 30 2014, @02:50AM   Printer-friendly
from the dam-power-lines-are-important dept.

Siemens is doing a bit of trumpet blowing with their press release: High Voltage at the World's Tallest Dam, but it is no less interesting for that.

Siemens is bringing electricity to the surface from the world's deepest arch-dam turbines. The dam of the Jinping-1 Hydropower Station in China's Sichuan province is 305 meters tall; the turbines are located 230 meters deep. The facility will have a total power output of 3.6 gigawatts. In order to transport this huge amount of energy up out of the mountain, Yalong Hydro is using gas-insulated transmission lines (GIL) from Siemens. This technology is especially well suited for the transmission of large amounts of electricity in restricted spaces.

Gas-insulated tubular lines can transmit up to 5,000 amperes at up to 550 kilovolts (kV). Every line consists of two concentric aluminum tubes. The space between the inner conductor and the earthed outer tube is filled with insulating gas. GIL systems not only transmit huge amounts of electricity in very restricted spaces, they are also fireproof unlike standard power cables. As a result, GILs are a safe and easy-to-install solution for the transmission of electricity out of underground power stations or tunnels. The Jinping-I transmission line consists of a total of three parallel GIL systems, each of which has three monopolar tubular lines that lead vertically up at the dam.

While Siemens is rightly proud of their accomplishment, there may also be some unintended consequences from a project of such magnitude.

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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Tork on Wednesday April 30 2014, @05:31AM

    by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 30 2014, @05:31AM (#37985)
    It sounds impressive... until you realize it can only power 3 Deloreans.
    --
    🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Wednesday April 30 2014, @05:43AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 30 2014, @05:43AM (#37988) Journal

      It sounds impressive... until you realize it can only power 3 Deloreans per moment.

      FTFY [wikipedia.org]

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Wednesday April 30 2014, @07:22AM

      by SlimmPickens (1056) on Wednesday April 30 2014, @07:22AM (#38000)

      until you realize it can only power 3 Deloreans.

      Or just one AC/DC

    • (Score: 1) by terryk30 on Wednesday April 30 2014, @03:33PM

      by terryk30 (1753) on Wednesday April 30 2014, @03:33PM (#38150)

      ... until you realize it can only power 3 Deloreans.

      But with 1 on each phase, that's a nice, balanced load.

    • (Score: 2) by egcagrac0 on Wednesday April 30 2014, @03:47PM

      by egcagrac0 (2705) on Wednesday April 30 2014, @03:47PM (#38156)

      Well, 2.98 DeLoreans.

  • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 30 2014, @05:35AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 30 2014, @05:35AM (#37986)

    What could go wrong?

  • (Score: 2) by wantkitteh on Wednesday April 30 2014, @09:00AM

    by wantkitteh (3362) on Wednesday April 30 2014, @09:00AM (#38017) Homepage Journal

    minecraft want! plz + to industrialcraft kthxbai

  • (Score: 1) by Urlax on Wednesday April 30 2014, @11:57AM

    by Urlax (3027) on Wednesday April 30 2014, @11:57AM (#38059)

    ok, I get the point, the dielectric proporties of gas are probably better than that of nylon or hdpe or whatever they are using for other HV stuff.

    but how do they get the conductor to stay floating? with little strings?

    The lorentz force should keep the conductor centered, but how do they get it there?