How do Electric Transmission Lines Work?
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Discussing some of the fascinating engineering that goes into overhead electric power transmission lines.
In the past, power generating plants were only able to serve their local areas. As power plants grew larger and further away from populated areas, the need for ways to efficiently move electricity over long distances has become more and more important. Stringing power lines across the landscape to connect cities to power plants may seem as simple as connecting an extension cord to an outlet, but the engineering behind these electric superhighways is more complicated and fascinating than you might think.
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Writing/Editing/Production: Grady Hillhouse
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This video is sponsored by Hello Fresh.
We need more UA-camrs like you.
1. No BS; cuts to the point
2. Intelligent
3. Informative videos
4. Videos are easy to understand, yet supply the viewer with significant information
5. Doesn’t clutter the videos with ads
6. Doesn’t ramble on about the sponsor at the 1 minute mark until the 3 minute mark
Agreeed.
so true...
This is what the Internet was meant to be
I have yet to get a midroll ad in his videos
I am a Transmission and Distribution Civil Engineer, I shared this video with my coworkers. They all appreciated the video! I would have enjoyed if you integrated the difference in dead end and tangent structures. Still a very well done video.
Hire me. I need experience.
Please enlighten me. What might be the best major/minor to get that position? I'm looking at a combination of Civil and Electrical Engineering, but for designing towers some professors have suggested Mechanical Engineering as well. Our transmission infrastructure is outdated and under-appreciated. I will see to it that a little creativity will go a long way to modernize the technology and improve the _A E S T H E T I C S_
Electrical and structural engineering would be your best choices.
Awave3 at the firm I currently work for, we split Transmission and Distribution design into several sub-disciplines. We have geotechnical engineers that do the foundation design. Structural engineers primarily analyze existing lattice structures to see if they are still in good shape or not. Not as many lattice towers are build these days because they can become very complex. Some civil engineers also help with the foundation design of the substation layout and grading plans, but most of us civil engineers design steel concrete and wooden poles as well as the sag/tension designs of the conductors to ensure they meet clearance requirements. We also have a fair number of structural engineers that go my route as well. All of the electrical engineers design the substations and phasing of the new conductors. I’ll be honest, out of all the disciplines I just listed, electrical is by far the one I know the least about.
I do feel like knowing electrical would help give you a better understanding of why designs are the way they are. Us civil engineers just follow the specs that the electrical guys designate. All we do is hold up the wire basically.
In my experience as a complete novice but power line gawker, I would identify a third type of structure: the deflection structure. Robust lattice designs do not need special structures where the line changes direction, but other designs (such as steel poles) may, and a change in direction often does not have dead ends.
Probably the most educational use of two microwave death trap transformers I've seen so far :)
Orbis92
ElectroBOOM is crying in a corner...
At least he's not dying in a corner.
I personally prefer to burn wood with them haha
What is the location in that photo at 3:50?
Sam Hoover dam, Arizona USA
Hey thats me
i built you lol (i’m a lineman)
Cringe
@@ryancapewell6504L bully
I have just covered this topic in my introduction to electrical engineering class as a mechanical engineering student. You explained it far better than my teacher.
Loved the hair dryer transformer bit was a brilliant idea. Always good to see a video from you :)
Yeah it was a great idea, so good I think I might try it at home
@@willdbeast1523 I know you're probably joking but... please don't, that thing is a death trap. That thing has wires live at several thousand volts, and you should stay away from those - literally.
Using microwave oven transformers to do the step-up / step-down usually results in very high losses, and is really only good for demonstration.
@@willdbeast1523 why not just go straight to the source and touch the wires at your local sub station *s
CasuallyPlayinGames totally agree, I knew most of these things and still found the demo cool. Hard to beat seeing something in action!
I got asked in my job interview "how can you tell what is the transmission voltage level by simply looking at the transmission tower?". I knew the answer but my point is these videos are actually very informative for people who are curious about Power systems in general.
Man getting a job at Starbucks is tough!
...I kid of course.
Its the insulators right?
@@Joe-Mamasixtyninefourtwenty Yes sir
@@Joe-Mamasixtyninefourtwenty also more than one wire per phase
corn holio that depends, you can't use that alone as our low voltage systems at 230V and our transmission system at 275kV both may have 1 or multiple conductors per phase depending on application
4:25 such a brilliant demonstration of transformers, as his videos often have.
You put so much effort into your videos! We’re all hugely appreciative of your work, keep it up! I look forward to every new one you post!
Your wife's commentary while you cooked made me laugh! Congrats!
Me too. She has definitely earned her snarky commentary merit badge.
You know a video is good when there are comments about the ads.
"Nice shallot stack"..now that’s a compliment ;)
That was a cool demonstration
They are so ridiculously adorable
I saw the title and thought "I know how transmission lines work." But then I remembered this is Practical Engineering, and it's worth watching even if you think you already know. Great video. I was looking forward to hearing about how the parameters of conductors are chosen... maybe in another video, I guess.
Here, if you want to know about the parameters on choosing conductors, you might be interested in this video.
ua-cam.com/video/_pGbLXu6YWQ/v-deo.html
I can confirm that the power lines will induce voltages on nearby lines. I used to work for a telecom giant, and our copper phone lines would pick up voltage all the time. It was also easy to find when a ground had been cut from a phone pole, due to the induced voltage and noise levels.
Nicely done Grady! I really like how you informed us on how the transmission grid works! As a employee that works with transmission lines on a daily bases, I can tell you have done quite a bit of research on this subject as you have been extremely accurate with everything you said in this video. Nicely done!
Hard to imagine high voltage AC power is over 100 years old! Fantastic demonstration explaining voltage vs current draw. I've been doing commercial and residential electrical work my entire adult life and I always learn something new, a different perspective and appreciate your using language not designed to confuse watching your videos. Keep up the good work.
Absolutely amazing demonstration with the transformers. Both young and old of the house impressed. Thank you for providing such great information.
Very cool direct demonstration of the concept using the two transformers. Thanks!
If Electroboom explained this, he will be electrocuted so many times.
He did!! The transformer part alone in his ac vs DC video
He wouldn't: you can only get electrocuted once
Electroboom has a high tolerance for pain.
That's his call to fame....
@@crackedemerald4930 "He wouldn't: you can only get electrocuted once"
That depends on whether you use the word as it was defined when it was coined over 100 years ago, or the way it's used and defined today. Word definitions change over time. Denying that reality makes you both a pedant and incorrect.
@KarlBunker - yes. It gets so annoying when people argue with modern definitions of words because they don't agree with them, and forcibly try and deny the existence of the new meaning.
That, or use a dictionary to justify why a colloquial meaning is 'wrong', completely missing the fact that a dictionary is a DESCRIPTIVE text, not a PRESCRIPTIVE one. (That is, a dictionary contains an explanation of observed usage up to the point the dictionary was published, rather than containing a description of what a word is supposed to mean according to some kind of authority.)
Words change meaning. Sometimes substantially. To deny that is to deny the reality of how language functions.
(grammar also changes over time of course. But that's a side issue. - for that matter, grammar and even spelling is contextual; a statement like HI HOW R U is valid in some contexts, but not in others. To say nothing of dialect related variations, such as colour, aluminum, and the like...)
You should do a video on why rotating mass is important to a powergrid
Are you talking about flywheel energy storage?
J.J. Shank pretty much
@@General12th Probably more traditional power generation methods that involve large spinning turbines. However, there's an initiative with some North American Energy Reliability Organizations to study the impacts of inverter-based generation technologies on the Bulk Electric System. This may lead to stronger voltage/frequency performance requirements years from now.
yes! a new video!
Some of your final comments reminded me of my high school. My high school is on top of a hill with high power transmission lines passing over the front parking lot. They installed metal bollards along the curb and you could feel the hum or vibration of the power lines if you touched the bollards.
(Recently retired from a Fortune 100 electric utility) - Probably the best video I have seen about electrical transmission! I fault the electric industry as a whole for not educating the public about Bulk Electric Service; an astounding percentage of people believe critical infrastructure is accessible from the internet, they think electricity providers are free to buy from only the generation sources they choose, believe blackouts are caused by insufficient generation rather than transmission shortfalls, and think photovoltaic solar, even rooftop solar, improves grid stability.
Some details I could add: most commercial sized fossil and hydro plants use buss voltages around 100kV; long transmission lines transpose (roll) phases about every 70 miles for balance; the insulators are coated with a semiconductor to equalize the voltage gradient even when wet or dirty.
As always, great video!
For anyone that's confused at 3:31, the explanation of power loss doesn't quite make sense just looking at Ohm's Law. Based on Ohm's Law, smaller current would be the result of smaller voltage, not greater. However, if one realizes that we're dealing with two different voltages, it will begin to make sense. To decrease current through the conductor, we must decrease the voltage from one end of the conductor to the other. And that can be done by increasing the voltage that's measured from the conductor to ground.
This concept is explained well in this Khan Academy video: ua-cam.com/video/VrbxUQxu0l0/v-deo.html
Yes I thought that didn't make any sense and it was left unexplained in the video, as voltage and current don't have an inverse relationship. Thank you for explaining.
Your linked video also highlights the fact that ohms law refers to the relationship of V and I for a given circuit, but transformers are based around 2 different circuits.
Power companies aren't compensated for energy lost in the grid? You don't think that's baked into the cost of electricity?
Haha, yes. It’s still in their best interest to reduce losses as long as that costs less than generating more electricity, but yep, they factor that in 😂
"You don't think that's baked into the cost of electricity?"
In principle, only a portion of it should be and the size of that portion should depend on the elasticity of the supply and demand.
yes and no. Utilities can set the rates they sell it to consumers so all of that is factored into their pricing structure. I wouldn't call it "baked into" because that sounds kind of shady. That said, power sold from utility to utility is typically sold on the open market so you might not have too much control over those prices.
Sure, but it's still a major loss of efficiency, and thus profit or competitive edge. More energy loss = more energy generation required = more maintenance costs & more pollution etc...
@@tchevrier baked in sounds shady to you? That's interesting, because I've always found the opposite - that "it's all been accounted for" sounds sinister but "it's baked in" reminds me of "it does what it says on the tin", but also just.. home baking.
I hope you understand how much good you do. You somehow take some very knotty, everyday functions and in your friendly, non-threatening way, somehow make them far less disagreeable and much more readily digestible. Cool knack to have. I never miss your videos.
Was a distribution lineman in so cal for 25 years, retired 20 years ago. Loved it, great video
I was wondering about this exact topic just this week!
THIS IS A MYSTERY FOR ME UNTIL NOW.
I really really hope you know how much I (and many here appreciate the work you do! Love these videos, I've always been fascinated by electricity and how it's 'shipped' around. I went into the field of Telecommunications and IT but there's still a very big part of me that wishes I would have taken the E.E route!
Having done an electrical apprenticeship in machine tool electrical engineering, and done courses on heavy current technologies, such as this video. Then going into IT and teaching a lot of telecomms stuff, I reckon you are in a good career area.
@@rjones6219 Thanks! Yep, three years from that comment and I still enjoy it here!
My grandpa was a lineman for thirty years, I wish I had learned more about this stuff from him.
I appreciate the use of proper terminology. Well done sir
9:00 - As a chef I can tell that knife is painfully dull.
As a cook, he is a great engineer.
who the fuck cares?
@@VeteranVandal No doubt about that.
Probably preaching to the choir here, but those two microwave transformers made for a really awesome demo.
The stock footage at 00:08 Is of the machines that drives the cable cars in San Francisco.
Ha! Somebody *DID* notice!
Easily one of the best UA-cam channels in existence currently. Now I want to see you do a video on Mains Hum. I was waiting for it to come up somewhere in this video haha
I've studied electricity for some years but never actually knew why high voltage reduces power loss, yo ureally learn something every day, thank you :)
Grady, I discovered your channel 3 weeks ago and subscribed after watching the very first episode. Great work, great vids and my kids love it. Thanks.!!!!
Brilliant as it cuts to the essentials while making it clear and easy to understand. A great teacher!
Transmission loss is definitely compensated for on our bills.
@@jeffolney2102 everywhere with electricity
Of course it is, they are running an electricity supply network, not a charity lol
As the channel name says "Practical Engineering" and that's exactly what you get. Everything explained in a simple informative and no nonsense way. Every engineering student should be watching this channel. A suggestion for some topics to cover in a distribution video. PV exporting and not exporting, battery storage and EV charging which are all topics very much currently being discussed by those in the utility world. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
Arr, Grady.. you’ve created a great channels to geek out about stuff most people find boring.. keep the good stuff coming!!
2:20 "Small drop in voltage"
Drops from 120 to 111. "small"
Brink Shows
Usually, we call something small if difference is less than 10%
You're such a good source of actual information. I love your format!
Buddy, as an electrical engineer, that was awesome!
Keep up the good work!
Oh my! I love all your videos, and with all that is going on with my local power company (PG&E) it makes the subject very relevant. I really loved this one and your low scale examples are the best!
This is some of the best informational content on UA-cam.
This scratch only the surface of the power grid. It's way more complex.
Really? You mean we didn't get a graduate-level college course in transmission engineering in this 10-minute video?
@@toddrf every one got a degree by watch this video.
In Ontario Canada, Hydro One charges more for the electricity lost on the way to your house than the actual electricity you used plus of course other admin fees so in effect your bill is more than double the electricity you consumed. To make matters worse, if you go on a one month vacation for instance and close the main circuit breaker so you do not use any electricity at all, you still get a hefty bill.
Sounds like bollox to me. Because the KWH meter is positioned at people's houses so the power/energy consumed by the user is measured. There would be Court cases if the power company was measuring the KWH somewhere else and charging them for electricity not actually consumed. That would be illegal.
excellent information with simple and easy to understand explanation.
Very interesting, as always. Also, I don't even mind the adverts after the videos.
In the first few seconds of the video you say the electric companies only get to charge for electricity that ends up at the meter but isn't efficiency losses bundled into those distribution fees/taxes that are itemized on most electric bills?
Yeah, but what I think he meant to say, was that your electric provider doesn't bill you in detail but charges a general fee for it (which is included in the price you pay per kilowatt-hour).
this probably requires some researching, the other possibility is they cut their losses. the same way walmart cut their loses when dealing with thefts, damages and such.
Another great video Grady, I especially liked the thin wire demonstration. I thought you might actually go into the power transmission in terms of the inductance and capacitance of the wires but I guess that would scare too many people. The Ohm's law example was nice, baby steps I guess.
In addition to using OPGW, communications are often sent over the main phase conductors and then decoupled using wave traps. This is how carrier relay schemes work so one end of a line can “tell” the remote ends of a line which direction a fault is in, thereby only opening the breakers required to isolate the fault.
Very informative and explained very well, thanks.
Great video. Very educational. It made the transmission of electricity easy to understand.
Best rudimentary advice I got about electricity as a youngster that stuck with me was "Voltage is like electricity's pressure"
Love this video. I recently learned about transformers in my analog circuitry class, and found it very interesting.
I work on the power generation side of the equation. I found this to be very informative and now have a better understanding of how the power I generate gets out and about.
This is such a nerdy channel. I love it!!!
I hope you are a school teacher - we'd have a better world if guys like you made science fun and interesting already in school. 1,57 M subscribers!!! And my teachers could not get 30 kids to listen!
I´am an electrician. You are a BRILLIANT teacher, really good explained.
6:10 In germany we use:
10.000 - 20.000 Volt from transforming station - town transformer.
110.000 , 220.000. 380.000 Volts through the country.
Greetings from germany
One question: is it 380 kV or 400 kV (here in Slovenia we call it a 400 kV system)?
@@FrainBart_main As far as I know (Wikipedia says the same) it is 380 kV.
I love engineering because of you. Thank you, Mr practical engineer.
This is great stuff!! This is exactly what I was looking for my students to get the big picture. Your model of step up/step down, higher voltage/lower current and the sizing of conductors is awesome.
its been a while sir! Keep it up!
I liked the practical experiments, helps to understand the formulas
thanks for easy explanation for these kind and what are their do,
until now im still wondering how its works but after watching these video im understand much how its works, and what kind component that used in there.
thanks again
An good complement of this video would be the growing (albeit slowly) Direct Current transmission lines and how they work.
Ever since moving into a home with no cable TV/internet available, I've been paying attention to the telephone poles on different streets. I think I can spot which streets have cable available by seeing if a black insulated line exists. It's surprising how many don't. It can't be that simple though. What about phone lines? Would they look the same? Do higher internet speeds or longer streets require more or thicker lines? Can you tell how much power a house or business has available to it by counting the uninsulated lines? I've noticed that older areas seem to have more variety and different layouts. I'd like to have a better understanding of what's going on up there. Is it possible to read these lines? Could someone look up and say "Ah, yes, this location has this much power and these utilities available."
I almost can't tell if you're serious or not. But, assuming your comment is not tongue-in-cheek... most people have never seen a _telephone_ pole. Very few poles dedicated to carrying telephone lines above ground exist these days.
Cable television lines tend to be thick and black. More important trunk lines will be thicker. You can identify cable lines by the equipment used alongside them (such as signal boosting stations) which often hang in the air on the cable itself.
Phone lines also tend to be thick and black. There rarely is equipment hanging on the lines, but such thick bundles will usually run down the pole to a large distribution or interconnect box. The lines (phone and cable) may run down to a pedestal box that sticks up from the ground.
_Do higher internet speeds or longer streets require more or thicker lines?_
No.
_Can you tell how much power a house or business has available to it by counting the uninsulated lines?_
Not really. From a US/Canada perspective, a home or business is going to get 1 phase or 3 phase electrical service. 1 phase requires 2 uninsulated (high voltage power line) wires, whereas 3 phase service requires 3 or 4 uninsulated wires. A home or business that receives 3 phase service automatically has more power coming to it. A better gauge of how much power a place gets or requires is to look at the size of the transformer(s) serving it. But, if the transformer(s) serve more than one customer, you can't tell much about one individual customer.
_Is it possible to read these lines? Could someone look up and say..._
No.
Many of these utilities you speak of can be buried. Even if they're not, just because a home or business receives cable TV service does not mean they receive cable TV service. Just because a building receives 3 phase power does not mean that every business in that building does. Just because a telephone line is ran to a home or business does not mean it's used. You really can't tell or assume much by looking at any of it, because the physical infrastructure may indicate something is immediately possible but not a definite. And, again, if it's buried, you'd never know unless you have inside information.
.
.....
P.S. FUCK YOU UA-cam for making it impsosible to format comments properly anymore. Paragraphs and linebraks be damned.... UA-cam inserts them or takes them away at will! Dozen edits later and it still won't do it right. WHAT A JOKE
It makes me smile to hear your wife's cheesy flirting at the end. We need more happy couples in the public eye.
You are very sympathetic and I like how you make your videos.
Fun Fact! If you properly loop a wire length to length underneath high power transmission lines, you can capture an induced current from the e-field and get free electricity!
fractions of power
In 7 minutes you explained this better than my tertiary education course did in 2 years
Now I’ll be calculating voltage on all the power lines I see by multiplying the number of insulator disks x 15K.....great video!
These videos are so much fun. I have wondered about the insulators on power lines, I did not know they were ceramic. Thank you for doing these videos that highlight interesting aspects of the engineering that goes in to utilities.
well described, I could not have explained it better, thank you.
Very instructive and informative video. Many thanks for the enlightening talk.
Fontana dam! Nice. Wonder if anyone else has been there. I live in the local area.
An engineering analysis of the entire HelloFresh supply chain would be an interesting topic. Upon first glance the volume and mass of packaging per unit mass of food looks extravagant.
I’m curious about the energy requirements to transport the food in the HelloFresh supply and delivery chains, the carbon footprint of the HelloFresh food preparation centre, the food waste/composting stream from that place. I’ve only just scratched the surface on the possible factors to analyze.
HelloFresh looks convenient, yes. In modern lingo, would it be considered sustainable - however one could measure that?
Rain on your parade? Maybe a bit. I’d love to seen you sharpen your pencil and tackle this topic as well.
Thanks for your good work. You have a satisfied fan base - and that is as it should be. Your videos are top-notch. Good luck.
Really enjoyed this. How about doing one on how to protect the electrical grid from a terrorist attack or solar fluctuations?
Your wife seems to really... enjoy... your cooking...
It was date night!
Odd...
Just got a message from some one on Plenty of Fish
asking if I wanted to generate
some electricity. 👙.
Very strange.
So, for years I’ve heard plenty of people say, “wish they would bury those electrical lines” but not until recently have I known why they don’t. Because they are hung the wires can be a smaller gauge because the air cools them. If they are buried they would have to be heavier gauge so the wires don’t over heat. Not only does it cost more and take longer to bury wires but also the material cost increases. Making it prohibitively expensive.
High voltage transmission lines... very interesting..., well explained! Thanks!
Twinkle twinkle little star Power equals I squared R
Thanks for nice explanations.
Amazing illustration video
Hello there, can please explain why do they buzz?? why do they emit that sound?
Excellent video, thank you
Thanks for the reminder lesson. I haven't studied Ohm's law for years and was a great refresher course.
Good video - you should do one on the Pacific DC Intertie - A two-wire DC transmission line between the Columbia river and Los Angeles.
Very informative. The presented examples really simplify concepts, especially for a beginner like myself.
Stock Bridge Dampers. Thanks. I've been wondering what those were for 40 years. Nobody knew.
Great video....I never knew you could figure out power in the line by counting insulators....very cool.
It's voltage you can estimate from the insulators, not the power.
Great video and demonstration! Can you also talk about high voltage direct correct (HVDC) in power transmission? This seems to be a new solution for power transmission to minimize losses.
I suppose it depends on your definition of "new" as it relates to electricity transmission. I designed nonceramic insulators for a 500kV DC transmission project in the southwest US 25 years ago. To plagiarize my own comment above, there isn't much to say. Transmitting electricity via DC results in fewer line losses, but the lower losses have to be balanced against the cost of the equipment needed to rectify the power at the point of generation and then invert it back into AC at the far end. It's possible that in the 23 years that I've been out of that engineering field that the equipment to convert to DC and back has come down in price, making DC transmission more attractive at shorter transmission distances.
Very good demonstration.
man i love how smart I feel after watching your videos! :)
there are a set of above ground transmission lines nearby that are certainly audible on hot days. not so much on cold days as many homes here use gas furnaces.
I love that you not only show North American variants but also European ones (incl.former USSR)
😔 I'm hooked on these damn videos. I just can't help learning a little about a wide variety of things.
Thanks for another excellent presentation, thanks Chris. 😃👌👏👏👏👏
This video was very helpful and thanks for sharing
I lived near high voltage transmission lines, so close a concrete base for a tower was in my neighbors backyard. On rainy days, you could hear the slight popping from the towers
Loved this! Examples and comparisons were very helpful :)
Excellent video I love the way you explain it in simple ways . Keep up good work