7 ms·
US grid: losses are 5%. EU grid was in the same ballpark. The wiki page [0] is the source and was pretty much the best summary i could find when i was looking f
by Faark 7y ago
US grid: losses are 5%. EU grid was in the same ballpark. The wiki page [0] is the source and was pretty much the best summary i could find when i was looking for it a while back. I'd love to read better material about it. Btw, losses seem to include theft. Wonder if much of a thing that still is.
> In general, losses are estimated from the discrepancy between power produced (as reported by power plants) and power sold to the end customers
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission#Losses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission#Lo...
- TrevorJ 7y agowow, that's way better than I would have imagined.
- TallGuyShort 7y ago5% loss isn't that bad, but that's because they're being limited in a lot of ways to keep the efficiency high. Dropping current and increasing voltage, for instance. If you had a 100% efficient conductor, you could do things like transmit monstrously high levels of current without having to worry about stuff like that.
- MayeulC 7y agoTrue, although the superconducting effect is lost under high electric fields. A superconducor rejects magnetic fields (a bit like a Faraday cage). What if you cranck it up high enough and force the superconductor in place? You lose superconductivity. For that reason, there is actually a limit to thew current that can be transmitted, though it is much higher than with conventional cables (you still can't power a city with a hair-thin cable, IIRC).