UHVDC has been dubbed as the “intercontinental ballistic missile” of the power industry.
Ultra high-voltage cable technology allows power to be commercially transported over vast distances with lower costs and increased load is justifying the construction of massive power projects.
Yet there has been controversy over UHV since 2004 when the State Grid Corporation of China proposed the idea of UHV construction. The controversy has been focused on UHVAC while the idea of building UHVDC has been widely accepted.
The most debated issues are the four listed below:
(1) Security and reliability issues: With the construction of more and more UHV transmission lines, the power grid around the whole nation is connected more and more intensively. If an accident happens in one line, it is difficult to limit the influence to a small area. This means that the chances of a blackout are getting higher. Also, it may be more vulnerable to terrorism.[citation needed]
(2) Market issue: All other UHV transmission lines around the world are currently operating at a lower voltage because there is not enough demand.[citation needed] The potential of long distance transmission needs more in-depth research. Although the majority of coal resources are in the northwest, it is difficult to build coal power plants there because they need a large amount of water and that is a scarce resource in northwest China. And also with the economic development in west China, the demand of electricity has been booming these years.
(3) Environmental and efficiency issues: Some experts argue that UHV lines won't save more land compared to building extra railroads for increased coal transport and local power generation.[17] Due to the water scarcity issue, the construction of coal-fired power plants in the west is hindered. Another issue is transmission efficiency. Using combined heat and power at user end is more energy efficient than using power from long distance transmission lines.
(4) Economic issue: The total investment is estimated to be 270 billion RMB (around 40 billion USD), which is much more expensive than building new railroad for coal transportation.
Also, the huge amount of investment in UHV transmission may draw investment away from energy efficiency programs and power grid distribution reconstruction (which is argued to be the most vulnerable part of whole power grid).[citation needed]
There is also controversy over whether the construction proposed by State Grid Corporation of China is a strategy to be more monopolistic and fight against the power grid reform.
More at HVDC Belt and Road 2019 China Conference
Ultra high-voltage cable technology allows power to be commercially transported over vast distances with lower costs and increased load is justifying the construction of massive power projects.
The most debated issues are the four listed below:
(1) Security and reliability issues: With the construction of more and more UHV transmission lines, the power grid around the whole nation is connected more and more intensively. If an accident happens in one line, it is difficult to limit the influence to a small area. This means that the chances of a blackout are getting higher. Also, it may be more vulnerable to terrorism.[citation needed]
(2) Market issue: All other UHV transmission lines around the world are currently operating at a lower voltage because there is not enough demand.[citation needed] The potential of long distance transmission needs more in-depth research. Although the majority of coal resources are in the northwest, it is difficult to build coal power plants there because they need a large amount of water and that is a scarce resource in northwest China. And also with the economic development in west China, the demand of electricity has been booming these years.
(3) Environmental and efficiency issues: Some experts argue that UHV lines won't save more land compared to building extra railroads for increased coal transport and local power generation.[17] Due to the water scarcity issue, the construction of coal-fired power plants in the west is hindered. Another issue is transmission efficiency. Using combined heat and power at user end is more energy efficient than using power from long distance transmission lines.
(4) Economic issue: The total investment is estimated to be 270 billion RMB (around 40 billion USD), which is much more expensive than building new railroad for coal transportation.
Also, the huge amount of investment in UHV transmission may draw investment away from energy efficiency programs and power grid distribution reconstruction (which is argued to be the most vulnerable part of whole power grid).[citation needed]
There is also controversy over whether the construction proposed by State Grid Corporation of China is a strategy to be more monopolistic and fight against the power grid reform.
More at HVDC Belt and Road 2019 China Conference
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