"Ibrahima Ndiaye, a senior principal engineer at GEVAR who led the project, says the breakthrough was figuring out how to give a conventional transformer the capability to change its impedance (that is, its resistance to electricity flow) without changing any other feature in the transformer, including its voltage ratio.
"Impedance and voltage ratio are both critical features of a transformer that ordinarily must be tailored to each use case. If you can tweak both factors independently, then you can modify the transformer for various uses. But altering the impedance without also changing the transformer’s voltage ratio initially seemed impossible, Ndiaye says.
"The solution turned out to be surprisingly straightforward. The engineer added the same amount of windings to both sides of the transformer’s core, but in opposite directions, cancelling out the voltage increase and thereby allowing him to tweak one factor without automatically changing the other. “There is no [other] transformer in the world that has a capability of that today,” Ndiaye says."
From what I can gather, this[1] is the research paper behind the described transformer, however it's not open access. However there is an available technical report here[2] with details.
The design is based on an autotransformer[3], where the primary and secondary windings are connected in series, so effectively one coil. Section 2 in the technical report has details on how the flexible impedance windings.
It's not as trivial as just adding some more windings, though perhaps in practice that's what it looks like.
Unfortunately blue whales are a terrible, archaic measure. There’s too much variability in mass, and then you’ve got the buoyancy problem and different salinity, plus pressure at depth.
Any modern scientific discussion should be done exclusively using standardized measures, like 747’s or 10-story office buildings.
How do you go through life without once deciding to learn the rough conversion between kgs and pounds (just double it, 1kg~=2lbs) or miles and kms (~1.5x it, 1mi~=1.5km) and so on?
Do you consume american media and just shrug every time you see a number and go "oops there's no way I can understand this now" unless you use Google?
The business is tiny in terms of number of units built, and they're basically hand-built. Some of the interior components are laminated wood. The number of people with the skills to make these things is small, and, since they're
expected to last 30 to 50 years, nobody wants to buy from a startup. You want to be able to get replacement parts in 2050.
Plus, General Electric broke up, and GE Vernova now has the transformer business.[1]
> Plus, General Electric broke up, and GE Vernova now has the transformer business.
Slight clarification, GE Vernova has the (most of) the medium and high voltage transformer business. ABB bought GE Industrial Solutions which includes all of GE’s low-voltage (under 1000 volts) transformers (plus all other sub-1000 volt GE switchgear, breakers, panel boards, etc) plus some 5-15kV medium voltage lines.
Right, but it's the big semi-custom stuff that's hard to get. Distribution transformers (the things on poles) are a commodity.
Part of the problem with generator step-up transformers is that the input side generator specs are determined by the generator, and the output side transmission grid specs are determined by the grid operator. The transformer is the component stuck with the job of making those compatible. That's the kind of problem which leads to N x M variants being needed.
They’re now reworking transformer designs to use different or less sought-after materials, to last longer, to include power electronics that allow the easy conversion between AC and DC, and to be more standardized and less customized than the transformers of today.
Or maybe they need to work out a new design that is not patent encumbered yet ?
They mention a bunch of new designs: hollow cores, high-temperature insulation, adjustable impedance.
It's sort of hard to replace a grid-frequency transformer (mammoth-sized because of the low frequency) with something like a switched power supply that uses much higher frequencies and thus much smaller coils. The semiconductors required for that barely handle a couple of kV, while the grid uses tens and hundreds of kV.
But a crisis like this is a good thing for the progress of technology. Demand by far outstrips supply, there's obviously good money to be made. Many new approaches are going to be researched and tried.
Can you imagine what would happen if we had another carrington effect (which we will eventually) and were suddenly faced with having to build thousands of transformers....
Or on a smaller scale, hybrid and open warfare, domestic terrorism [1] or just rednecks shooting at power lines [2] and transformers [3] already cause a lot of damage to power infrastructure.
An AR-15 or Kalashnikov is enough to cause serious damage, a hit squad or two can take out unprotected infrastructure on a wide scale in a very short time - and most substations consist of barely more than a fence and barbed wire to deter wildlife from entering, not a concrete wall that would thwart attackers.
Semiconductors have advanced a lot in the last few decades so they also enable different transformers and transmission lines. Very low level materials science. China already has megavolt level UHVDC deployed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-voltage_electricity...
It's unfortunate that the article doesn't point at the most obvious cause of the shortage: Russia deliberately and systematically destroying Ukrainian power grid for three years, and Western unwillingness to put a stop to that.
The scale of necessary repairs is mind boggling. Here's what just Europe alone shipped to Ukraine to repair the damage [1]:
- 8 827 power generators… with an estimated 1 258 590 kVA in power generators
- 3 597 transformers + 5 autotransformers
- 3 364 generators and 14 transformers from the rescEU stockpile
Then there is US support:
- 18 autotransformers "with more on the way" [2]
- 59 transformers just for Kharkiv [3]
…and that is just scratching the surface and is barely enough to keep the lights on, with Ukrainians installing private batteries and generation up and down the country.
Just last night Russia launched another massive attack at the energy infrastructure [4]. More expensive, rare, long lead time transformers getting blown up, and the raid doesn't even get any attention in the West.
Readit News
"Impedance and voltage ratio are both critical features of a transformer that ordinarily must be tailored to each use case. If you can tweak both factors independently, then you can modify the transformer for various uses. But altering the impedance without also changing the transformer’s voltage ratio initially seemed impossible, Ndiaye says.
"The solution turned out to be surprisingly straightforward. The engineer added the same amount of windings to both sides of the transformer’s core, but in opposite directions, cancelling out the voltage increase and thereby allowing him to tweak one factor without automatically changing the other. “There is no [other] transformer in the world that has a capability of that today,” Ndiaye says."
The design is based on an autotransformer[3], where the primary and secondary windings are connected in series, so effectively one coil. Section 2 in the technical report has details on how the flexible impedance windings.
It's not as trivial as just adding some more windings, though perhaps in practice that's what it looks like.
[1]: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9959916
[2]: https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1527031
[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autotransformer
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/511880/measu...
I'm sure glad they used such a commonly understood unit of weight. It really helps me understand the size of the item better than pounds or tons.
Any modern scientific discussion should be done exclusively using standardized measures, like 747’s or 10-story office buildings.
Tons would be nice though.
Deleted Comment
Just like 3 feet = 1 m and 4" = 10 cm.
Those are not "good enough for XKCD" approximations, but they are good enough to understand what people are saying.
Now, if I had something similar for Fahrenheit! One could use the hash of the temperature number and it would mean the same to me.
Do you consume american media and just shrug every time you see a number and go "oops there's no way I can understand this now" unless you use Google?
Also european here.
2 * bw ≈ 630,000 lb
Plus, General Electric broke up, and GE Vernova now has the transformer business.[1]
[1] https://www.gevernova.com/grid-solutions/hvmv_equipment/cata...
Slight clarification, GE Vernova has the (most of) the medium and high voltage transformer business. ABB bought GE Industrial Solutions which includes all of GE’s low-voltage (under 1000 volts) transformers (plus all other sub-1000 volt GE switchgear, breakers, panel boards, etc) plus some 5-15kV medium voltage lines.
Part of the problem with generator step-up transformers is that the input side generator specs are determined by the generator, and the output side transmission grid specs are determined by the grid operator. The transformer is the component stuck with the job of making those compatible. That's the kind of problem which leads to N x M variants being needed.
It's sort of hard to replace a grid-frequency transformer (mammoth-sized because of the low frequency) with something like a switched power supply that uses much higher frequencies and thus much smaller coils. The semiconductors required for that barely handle a couple of kV, while the grid uses tens and hundreds of kV.
But a crisis like this is a good thing for the progress of technology. Demand by far outstrips supply, there's obviously good money to be made. Many new approaches are going to be researched and tried.
An AR-15 or Kalashnikov is enough to cause serious damage, a hit squad or two can take out unprotected infrastructure on a wide scale in a very short time - and most substations consist of barely more than a fence and barbed wire to deter wildlife from entering, not a concrete wall that would thwart attackers.
[1] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/01/military_styl...
[2] https://newtoncountytimes.com/stories/shooting-power-and-fib...
[3] https://www.sasktoday.ca/southeast/local-news/carlyle-rcmp-s...
Event*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event
Dead Comment
The scale of necessary repairs is mind boggling. Here's what just Europe alone shipped to Ukraine to repair the damage [1]:
- 8 827 power generators… with an estimated 1 258 590 kVA in power generators
- 3 597 transformers + 5 autotransformers
- 3 364 generators and 14 transformers from the rescEU stockpile
Then there is US support:
- 18 autotransformers "with more on the way" [2]
- 59 transformers just for Kharkiv [3]
…and that is just scratching the surface and is barely enough to keep the lights on, with Ukrainians installing private batteries and generation up and down the country.
Just last night Russia launched another massive attack at the energy infrastructure [4]. More expensive, rare, long lead time transformers getting blown up, and the raid doesn't even get any attention in the West.
[1]: https://erccportal.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ECHO-Products/Maps#/maps...
[2]: https://x.com/USAmbKyiv/status/1819094722754797600
[3]: https://x.com/USAmbKyiv/status/1792791129513218539
[4]: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-launches-large-s...