Electrical Energy Transmission（电能输送）.docVIP

Page1 Electrical Energy Transmission（电能输送） From reference 1 Growing populations and industrializing countries create huge needs for electrical energy. Unfortunately, electricity is not always used in the same place that it is produced, meaning long-distance transmission lines and distribution systems are necessary. But transmitting electricity over distance and via networks involves energy loss. So, with growing demand comes the need to minimize this loss to achieve two main goals: reduce resource consumption while delivering more power to users. Reducing consumption can be done in at least two ways: deliver electrical energy more efficiently and change consumer habits. Transmission and distribution of electrical energy require cables and power transformers, which create three types of energy loss: the Joule effect, where energy is lost as heat in the conductor (a copper wire, for example); magnetic losses, where energy dissipates into a magnetic field; the dielectric effect, where energy is absorbed in the insulating material. The Joule effect in transmission cables accounts for losses of about 2.5 % while the losses in transformers range between 1 % and 2 % (depending on the type and ratings of the transformer). So, saving just 1 % on the electrical energy produced by a power plant of 1 000 megawatts means transmitting 10 MW more to consumers, which is far from negligible: with the same energy we can supply 1 000 - 2 000 more homes. Changing consumer habits involves awareness-raising programmers, often undertaken by governments or activist groups. Simple things, such as turning off lights in unoccupied rooms, or switching off the television at night (not just putting it into standby mode), or setting tasks such as laundry for non-peak hours are but a few examples among the myriad of possibilities. On the energy production side, building more efficient transmission and distribution systems is another way to go about it. High efficiency transformers, superconduct