It’s a radical assumption that an idea from way out there could find its way to the person who could make it happen, given the many places for information to become lost in our world.
I’m wondering how many degrees I am from an engineer who could evaluate an idea before rejecting it as impossible, and how many degrees I am from the engineer who could take that drop of information and turn it into something real.
Here in southwest Missouri we dodged a bullet this time. Just two years after our last massive ice storm, another giant storm hit just east and south of us, causing untold millions in damage to power lines and property. The cost in cold misery is not accountable, so here is my idea:
Is there a way to install some kind of small servo motor on power poles that would, in the case of icing, send some attenuated pulse of vibrational energy through the lines repeatedly in such a way that it would shatter the ice before it pulled down the wires?
Or is there a way to change the nature of the current flow to generate bursts of heat that could melt off the ice, or a way to combine the two ideas?
If the power grid had to be shut down in order to change the nature of the energy flow, I think most of us would be happy to avoid days or weeks without power.
Okay, so it’s probably the oddest idea you’ve seen on Gather this week, but with our broken economy, how much money are we robbing from innovative new energy strategies by having to rebuild our old system every time an ice storm comes through? I can quote no statistics, but it appears that they are coming more often than used to be the case. Like me, you are probably not an engineer, but if you let this idea spin through your mind for a bit and enjoy it, could you engineer getting the idea to someone who can respond to it intelligently?
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Comments: 25
1. Any such thing would probably require protection devices at each household.
2. Bury the lines to begin with.
Esteban--You raise a good point. I presume that the power companies still view it as too expensive to bury their lines, but maybe you'll stir up that question a little. In my vision this would require some kind of device on every power pole, and certainly trees would have to be trimmed regularly and well. I don't feel you came in the spirit of punching holes at all, and I appreciate your time and effort!
there are two enemies, I think, ...ice and pine trees. I never get ice, but during Fay I was without power for four days. That gives you plenty of time to think.
What I noticed is that some parts of the power companies are willing to live on the edge and others will come clear your yard if it saves a line.
Bury the lines to begin with.
might be cheaper in the long run but try to convince them of that.
I like your quest. And I like Sandy's answer. It would be great to hear you'd received an acknowledgement! Maybe, the start of something big!
Power generation and distribution offers no real model for true competition in the marketplace so they will always have you by the balls.
2. Stringing a heating wire along the transmission line - possible, but heating hundreds of miles of transmission line ... dubious ... a lot of juice and failure in one section cascades.
3. mechanically vibrating the wire ... hmmmm ... maybe. A lot of motors, and if one failed that stretch of wire would fail leaving all the others useless.
2&3 - Usually a lot of wind with blizzards? Maybe power power line-shaking motors or heaters with small windmills like those used on sailboats?
4. Seems burying the lines would be cheaper long-term than frequent repairs. I should ask our local co-op. They just strung a bunch of new lines above ground around here.
5. Fiber optics transmit light ... good for signals, not enough capacity for significant power transmission.
Interesting thinking though ... forget the engineers, go buy some beers for a couple of experienced power company linemen.
The comments about distributed power are right on target. Rooftop solar or wind installations, or nearby wind installations, can be ideal for many rural locations. Also, don't underestimate solar thermal heating: hot water uses most of the power in a home.
With solar electric or wind power, you can sell excess energy to the grid and, when the lines go down, the connection to the grid is turned off (to avoid electrocuting linemen who are repairing the lines- there is a centralized way of doing this that our power company, Ameren UE, requires if one wants to connect these systems to the grid) but you still have power.