The Jackuul Blog

Redundancies are fun.

Well, we’ve covered a small portion of localized planning – now what about national redundancies, what about keeping the grid online if the major power facilities massive AC transmission lines have a blowout? It’s a novel idea really – instead of running just one pair above ground, run an underground line along with it that is completely robotic maintenance facilitated. Consider this – the amounts of electrical juice running would be on a new standard, higher than the 90k AC voltage lines because of the increased power output – however because of the juice that there is anything higher will likely cause more problems than provide solutions. So, instead of running a few trillion volt lines, using petawatts of electricity, why not build the underground system to have thirty lines all running at 90k volts? That way there is enough running through in an easy to access arrangement that if one fails power can route to the other. Now I am sure you are thinking “gosh that must be expensive, and what if they all fail”. Well my good man or woman, you are right about the cost – but every investment has cost. The benefits will show themselves afterward, when less and less people are thrown off the grid, more and more hours of productivity are created through machines, robots, computers, and manpower being able to use their tools. In the case of an underground line failure near the power plant or even far away, Strand Lines – basically a smaller tunnel pipe with ten lines in them, would divert power to another line, and then divert the power back at a further distance point. If the entire line suffers a failure closer to the plant another nearby line can be juiced up more with all of its lines at 90k volts instead of just half, and the power provided by these strand lines. What if the power plant suffers a failure? Well then it is shut down and the other 299 reactors keep running.

Come back tomorrow for Electric Future V!