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by MisterTea3 days ago |
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upvoteby skeletoncrew213 hours ago|
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Yes this is the most glaring issue. There also two disconnects later in the article: at the end it laments how china has been increasing transformer manufacturing but the US government has done nothing. Then in the next sentence its mentions trumps tariffs have increased transformer costs, I. E. Government action to increase domestic production. It also glosses over the new DOE rule on how transformers are made…so maybe there is a larger story there relevant to the lack of supply.
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upvoteby rcxdude10 hours ago|
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Tariffs don't help onshore manufacturing when they apply to the materials that the manufacturing needs and might evaporate before the manufacturing capability is actually created. Tariffs needs to be applied carefully and consistently to actually encourage this.
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upvoteby skeletoncrew210 hours ago|
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Sure, I’m just saying the article was pretty long but pretty short and declarative on the impact of tariffs. Earlier in the article for example is said there was still a factory in the US where the magnetic core material was made.
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upvoteby matthewdgreen11 hours ago|
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We had targeted policies under Biden to increase US production of grid components. This entailed invoking the DPA and setting aside millions for manufacturing improvements. Trump paused all that and created blanket tariffs that don’t seem like they’re designed to onshore US manufacturing of these very specific components but do increase all the material costs. This is not an easy thing to fix with dumb tariffs, and it’s really easy to make everything worse.
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upvoteby skeletoncrew210 hours ago|
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I’m just noting the article doesn’t have anything specific of value to say about tariff’s. This is not directed at you but rather the reporters: I can read general opinions on tariffs or political parties anywhere; I need details relevant to transformers here to not just ignore other opinions
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upvoteby algo_trader13 hours ago|
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> practical voltage for a DC grid using early electrical machinery is around 2 kV.

What is a current (pun!) practical limit?

If a 100MW PV farm and a data center are separated by 1km (20 Olympic pools) - is there a way to avoid AC?

I know there are future solutions [1]

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/07/former-tesla-exec-drew-bag...

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upvoteby analog3112 hours ago|
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The early limit was because high voltage DC required producing it at the generator, whereas you could produce high voltage AC by generating at a lower voltage and then stepping it up with a transformer for long distance transmission.

The rules are changing because of switchmode voltage conversion, using transistors to switch the voltage at a high frequency, where the magnetics (transformers, inductors) can be much smaller and more efficient, then converting back to DC. This is how virtually all smaller power supplies have been made for years, the only question (which I don't know) being how far along we are at reaching the voltage levels of long distance transmission in this way.

I'd think that hustling us towards DC with electronic voltage conversion would be a reasonable strategic goal for dealing with the transformer problem, worthy of support by a government.

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upvoteby angry_octet10 hours ago|
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HVDC and UHVDC are used extensively for long distance transmission, notably for undersea cables and in China, which has made massive R&D investments in the technology in order to shift energy from West to East. Large solar, wind and hydro in the West.

However, DC does not make sense for a radial power distribution network. The article is propagating nonsense.

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upvoteby analog315 hours ago|
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>>> However, DC does not make sense for a radial power distribution network.

Why not? Pure geeky curiosity.

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upvoteby VgsIndustries59 minutes ago|
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Virtually all HVDC transmission currently operating is point to point mostly for control reasons. My understanding is it's very difficult to coordinate multiple converter stations - power flow in DC networks is fully determined by the control systems of the converters unlike AC networks which in general lack active control devices (see the FACTS family of devices for examples that can be used in AC networks to actively control power flow).
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upvoteby lmpdev52 minutes ago|
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Not an expert but every node in an UHVDC network would need expensive equipment

Point to point is just two nodes, but scaling that outward would be very expensive

AC transmission is relatively cheap in comparison

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upvoteby angry_octet41 minutes ago|
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Huge installed base of network elements, minimal efficiency improvements. Much better to invest in switch mode frequency stabilisation with batteries and soft open points (SOPs), which balance load between phases and distributors without needing a radial reconfiguration.

Radial DC is anachronistic thinking based on misunderstandings perpetuated by C-suite level just so stories like this Bloomberg nonsense.

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upvoteby nerdralph10 hours ago|
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HVDC transmission over 100kV lines are common now. https://www.emeranl.com/maritime-link/overview
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upvoteby lstodd12 hours ago|
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That link talks about 5MW 35kv AC / 800v DC converters.. completely different thing, they try to sell a single-source PV invertor-to-35KV AC solution first, then 35KV to 800V DC second, to have a sorta complete solution of PV-to-datacenter. And it's only 5MW. And only 35KV AC. For moving 100MW even over a few km you would need 110KV at least. I think. An overhead wire can handle about 600A of current, that's the physical limit and the reason for kilovolts there.

Consider also that there is nothing existing in transmission and switching gear certified for HVDC it being rare one-off projects so far, while AC is ubiquitious, more-or-less mass-produced and many people are trained in its maintenance.

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upvoteby pseudohadamard2 days ago|
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Yup. The only thing missing from the writeup is a eulogy for the death of the rotary converter.
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upvoteby 12 hours ago|
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upvoteby 14 hours ago|
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