My Take on Future of Grid Transmission Network Topology

Story of Last Decades....

Last several decades witnessed reliable electricity generation at economic scale through nuclear, hydro, & fossil fuel based large generating facilities, located far from demand centers primarily due to fuel availability and logistics considerations.  This is what shaped the evolution of power grid transmission network topology. The chronology of evolution can be roughly summarized as below...

-         Grid islands were formed (i.e. a sizeable of number of large generating stations operating in synchronism along with its transmission & sub-transmission HVAC network)  

-         these islands got connected through HVAC tie links for emergency power transfer among themselves

-         these islands then got connected through HVDC tie links for continuous power transfer among themselves  

-         many such islands (in some cases all within one country or group of countries) got consolidated into one mammoth grid through EHVAC-UHVAC-HVDC backbone links and advanced grid monitoring-control systems

Going Forward....

But the current trend in generation & consumption of electric energy is going through some radical changes…

On the Generation side, compulsion to find alternative source for fossil fuel-based generation for future energy security, technological advancement, scale of production, simpler operation & maintenance, economic generation even at small magnitude like KWs has led to large scale adoption of solar PV and wind generation. These generating facilities along with large scale energy storage has resulted in geographically more dispersed generation with more diverse generation mix.

Whereas, on the consumption side, more and more DC is being consumed (i.e. in commercial & domestic automation, computing, lighting, HVAC etc).

Going forward, focus would shift from further expansion of mammoth grids based on capital intensive EHVAC & UHVAC backbone links to simpler, smaller, agile, & reliable HVAC grids interconnected through HVDC. At consumption end, sooner or later LVDC would pick up.  

What’s your opinion??? 

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