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Easy is not a word that I would use to describe reconductoring. It is a hard job that requires a ton of planning and in a lot of cases removes redundancy from a
by eppp 3y ago
Easy is not a word that I would use to describe reconductoring. It is a hard job that requires a ton of planning and in a lot of cases removes redundancy from a substation while its being done. It isn't simple or stupidly easy or any other kind of easy. Why would someone write such an out of touch mass of words.
- Analemma_ 3y agoI think the point of the article was not that reconductoring is simple, but that it's easier than building new transmission capacity given the insane NIMBY vetocracy that makes such construction essentially impossible. It's a political fix, rather than a technical one. Personally my preferred solution would be permitting reform such that transmission capacity is approved and built by-right and NIMBYs can go pound sand if they don't like it, but you have to deal with the political landscape you have, not the one you want.
- fghorow 3y agoI have no insight on the ease of reconductoring, stupid or not. I do know that permitting a new transmission line route -- parallel to an existing route of insufficient capacity -- is severely constraining the further development of a known, existing geothermal resource. I was quoted a delay of 10-ish years for that permitting process by one of the higher-ups in the geothermal company involved.
- mullingitover 3y agoI heard somewhere that during the New Deal era, there was a regulation on the books that allowed the Army Corps of Engineers to file paperwork in the courthouse at 9am and roll bulldozers after lunch. It's a shame we can't bring that back. It would fix so many gordian knots of lawsuits that keep the US stuck in the 1900s.
- 7thaccount 3y agoThose gordian knots also keep the government from just steamrolling over your house and land in the time period of a few hours. Pros and Cons
- snapplebobapple 3y agoI basically agree but I also think one should be careful with this line of reasoning. The vast majority of nonsense in these cases stem from environmental law and a small minority of those cases are actually legitimate.
- mullingitover 3y agoI'd rather we had a few bad calls on eminent domain cases and 25,000 miles of modern high speed rail, rather than 100% correct calls and the nearly zero miles of high speed rail we have now.
- snapplebobapple 3y agoHigh speed rail solves a tiny fraction of the actual problem. Refocus on proper rezoning and build out of cities more like the netherlands because that is where the vast majority of the problem actually is. The city is also where the bad calls are thr most impactful to the human population
- sidewndr46 3y agoWhy, so they can destroy even more of the US? My home stated was basically ruined thanks to the Army Corps of Engineers.
- selimthegrim 3y agoLouisiana?
- m463 3y agoSeems to me it is new construction vs upgrade, and most folks that build things favor new construction. People that pay for things favor upgrades. I think the answer is in the middle.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Brian_K_White 3y agoThey said it has already been done enough to know that it costs 50%. "Not easy" is meaningless and not an argument.
- garbagewoman 3y agoIt’s the breathless one-dimensional optimism of Wired Magazine and TED talks
- forgetfreeman 3y agoIf it's new construction or this stuff you're gonna be pulling wire either way, so the substantive difference here is there's no need to wade through the thicket of permitting and legal battles involved with getting a new right-of-way. So yeah, by comparison this is a hell of a lot easier than getting new lines built.
- Robin_Message 3y agoThis feels like a PR submarine for a company which I'm guessing makes the conductors or does the replacement operation. Utilities are not stupid so I doubt doubling capacity is as easy or cost free as the article makes out.
- 31carmichael 3y agoI was once in charge of reconductoring numerous high voltage transmission lines in California. we used novel conductors when they were warranted. When I read comments on Hacker News about something I'm otherwise intimately aware of, some of the comments read like those which would be written on 9gag. My boss never stopped me from upgrading a transmission line because there are more expensive projects to do. Another thing I see is that so many people in tech are easily bamboozled by a slick marketing presentation and think that the people in power are hiding away the cool technology.