Electric Power Systems

Abstract

This short paper discusses electric power transmission systems, beginning with three-phase electricity and the work of the electrical engineer Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky, whose invention laid the foundation for the widespread introduction of the three-phase method. The author notes one advantage of the method, that the sum of three currents differing in phase by 120 degrees is zero so that adjacent currents do not radiate energy, and lists its disadvantages: the phase difference and equal spacing between wires must be maintained along the whole line, the wires are expensive and easily damaged, energy is difficult to take in non-three-phase form, and building lines on rough terrain is complex. After a brief mention of the first electric tram in St. Petersburg and of tram networks that use rails for zeroing the potential, the paper proposes a power transmission scheme based on a single-wire method. Responding to the objection that an electrical circuit must be closed, the author argues that active energy does not return from the load to the source. The claimed advantages of the one-wire system include lower cost, smaller land use, fewer power outages, no heating of the ground and electronic synchronization of windmills. Simulations of two-wire and single-wire systems are presented, and the author suggests the method allows more economical urban electric transport using a single underground wire without rails.

Abstract prepared by the editorial office from the full text of the article; the authors did not supply one.