Huge electricity provider Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) has announced [PDF] that it plans to lay superconducting cables alongside existing copper cables in parts of downtown Chicago to prevent outages in and around the Loop. The effort is receiving partial financial support from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Superconducting cables are those that are able to carry more electricity than standard power cables—in this case, ten times as much. The plan is to lay such cables next to existing copper cables that exist between substations and customers—thus new trenches or underground work won't be needed. Superconducting cables, the thinking goes, would allow for sending more power from substations that aren't impacted during an outage—taking over for those that are—the result would be a portion of the city protected against major power outages. The cables are to be supplied by American Superconductor, which has announced that the company is also in talks with other large metro area suppliers to provide cable for them as well.
Companies such as American Superconductor create so-named superconducting cables by using special metal alloys for the wire inside—in this case it's an alloy the company calls Amperium—a brass laminated wire. It allows for conducting up to 200 times more electricity than copper wire. They cover the wire with special materials to help prevent loss of power during transmission.
(Score: 4, Informative) by tynin on Saturday July 19 2014, @01:52AM
To learn more about the technology behind these superconducting cables, check out this article on superconducting wires [fsu.edu].
(Score: 3, Informative) by captain normal on Saturday July 19 2014, @06:37AM
This may also be illuminating: http://www.amsc.com/solutions-products/hts_wire.html [amsc.com]
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cafebabe on Saturday July 19 2014, @12:22PM
Use of nitrogen to fixed oil cooled cables [jwz.org] may be tangentially interesting.
1702845791×2
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Saturday July 19 2014, @06:43AM
Redundancy in the same trench seems like too many eggs in same basket.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 20 2014, @12:48PM
What if superconducting gypsies steal them?
(Score: 3, Funny) by velex on Saturday July 19 2014, @02:00AM
Yep, Chicago winters. Wind chill cold enough to keep these new materials superconductive.
(Score: 2) by Theophrastus on Saturday July 19 2014, @03:04AM
...and (hmm) Chicago summers. i'd like to see the (projected) balance sheet for the (equivalent) electrical power necessary to produce all their liquid refrigerant needs (i'm guessing liquid Nitrogen) versus how much they save over typical resistive losses (we'll assume that somehow they come out ahead in this regard, won't we?)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 19 2014, @04:50AM
Not about saving on losses; it's about 200x I.
Think what kind of space 200 x 1.5"core cables take.
Cutting losses is nice too.
EE is fun!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by evilviper on Saturday July 19 2014, @03:22PM
TFS says just "ten times as much" savings over copper in this project. "200x" is some theoretical max from a press release, no doubt in some far-fetched crafted scenario. It's hard to believe the 10X space savings would be worth the cost of the ongoing cryogenic cooling needs.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by forkazoo on Saturday July 19 2014, @04:57AM
Presumably somebody has run the numbers. But, this is a "Homeland Security" project, rather than DOE or something sensible. So, given the way DHS operates, somebody who works at teh superconducting cable company probably made a large campaign contribution somewhere, or has a cousin who works at DHS, etc. My best guess is that investing in doing some pure research on superconductivity to find higher temperature materials, and a better theoretical understanding of how superconductivity works would be much more valuable than deploying in Chicago now. If we made serious research investments, superconductors 10 years from now would probably wildly more practical, and for a major piece of infrastructure that will last decades, waiting a few years may be a good plan.
That said, there are apparently already some superconductive cables that are live today. AIUI, it's not unheard of.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Saturday July 19 2014, @06:42AM
Damn, I blew it and actually RTFA. Turns out they're talking about HTS wire (high temperature superconductor).
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 19 2014, @07:58AM
High temperature in this context still isn't comfy warm for humans - not even Chicagoers.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Saturday July 19 2014, @03:16PM
Since the original type of superconductors needs to be NEAR ABSOLUTE ZERO (-243.2C degrees), I'd think it would be extremely obvious that any real-world applications would use the high-temperature types.
And "high temperature" is only RELATIVE, as high temperature superconductors still need to be cooled to a ridiculously cold -135C degrees or so.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Saturday July 19 2014, @03:25PM
It's a shame wiring doesn't experience wind-chill... It's a human-only measurement, based on perspiration. I suppose it might apply to horses as well, but we're about the only two mammals that would possibly care about "wind-chill".
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 19 2014, @04:28PM
tell that to my aircooled CPU and GPU.
Stop the "wind" and guess what happens...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by evilviper on Sunday July 20 2014, @04:54AM
That's not wind-chill, and it only works that way in very specific circumstances... Higher than ambient, no insulation at all, etc.
Cover your heatsinks in insulating polystyrene foam, then tell me how much of an effect your cooling fan (blowing on the foam) has on the CPU temperature.
Or try out ever more powerful fans, and tell me how much air-volume you have to pass over that heatsink to cool the CPU/GPU down BELOW ambient temperatures, via "wind chill".
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Saturday July 19 2014, @10:10AM
How cold do these cables have to be kept to superconduct?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday July 20 2014, @11:16PM
This ought to drive cost and be complicated to maintain. Better to increase voltage to reduce ohmic losses and keep multiple backup lines. And if the ground is too crowded. Well perhaps it's time to structuring it with proper utility tunnels.