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jakedata 9 hours ago [-]
I read about Solid State Transformers https://www.powermag.com/the-solid-state-shift-reinventing-t... with some interest. However they have some weird failure modes. At least large chunks of metal twisted around large chunks of a different metal are predictable and don't need firmware updates.
Solid state transformers are a misnomer: Traditional transformers are already solid state - no moving parts. And SSTs do the actual voltage / current transformation using a smaller, higher frequency traditional transformer. A more appropriate name for SSTs would be high frequency transformers or IF (intermediate frequency) transformers or something.
jakedata 8 hours ago [-]
A traditional transformer doesn't use semiconductors for power conversion and chunks of metal are not "solid state" despite being solid. Call it a hybrid transformer if you want, but the name seems pretty settled. The more relevant part of my comment is that introducing semiconductors and software control into a device formerly only able to operate in a few very predictable ways will lead to both greater flexibility and also new and exciting failure modes.
quickthrowman 44 minutes ago [-]
There are no solid state electronics or semiconductors in basic AC transformers, it’s an iron core with aluminum windings coated with enamel and wrapped in paper with a bit of wire and some taps and lugs for terminations.
algo_trader 6 hours ago [-]
What's the top V these cretins will reach? Can they reach 10-20kV? Can they be "stacked" ?
IIUC the real bottleneck is in transmission (>50kv) not distribution transformers.
ahartmetz 4 hours ago [-]
It seems like solid-state transformers aren't entirely stupid - they can be smaller and lighter and control phase angle (to control power flow direction and power factor) like HVDC connections do. But their efficiency is less than the 98-99% of the traditional big hunks of copper and steel, so until that improves, they likely won't see widespread use.
ButlerianJihad 6 hours ago [-]
Ironically, "solid-state drive" was also misleading, because "solid-state" was an industry marketing term to differentiate anything using exclusively semiconductors from any older technologies, such as vacuum tubes. So a standard HDD, based entirely on semiconductors and not vacuum tubes, would indeed be "solid-state" by those standards, but I for one understood a "solid-state drive" to be differentiated by no moving parts. Vacuum tubes did not, per se, move a lot. Not like an HDD platter or head.
Also regarding child comment, how did we already get to slurs for those with developmental disabilities? Can we avoid those, please?
jakedata 1 hours ago [-]
I assumed it was a typo and they were actually referring to "cretons", a type of French-Canadian potted pork.
ahartmetz 4 hours ago [-]
So solid-state effectively means semiconductor based, but also not based on things that aren't semiconductors, depending on context...
Solid-state drives do indeed not contain non-solid-state critical parts, but solid-state transformers do.
6 hours ago [-]
quickthrowman 47 minutes ago [-]
I suppose they manufacture distribution or transmission transformers, I buy a lot of dry-type transformers and have never seen a Hitachi one, it’s almost always a Siemens/ABB/Square D/Eaton/Hammond.
pvab3 18 hours ago [-]
It's been taking about a year to get 500kva-5000kva transformers and big 480V switchgear. Things never really recovered from covid. The AI buildout certainly hasn't helped things but it's amazing how long this problem has been around.
JumpCrisscross 16 hours ago [-]
> Things never really recovered from covid. The AI buildout certainly hasn't helped
“Lead times, or the time taken between an initial order and its delivery, for some high-voltage transformers have increased to multiple years from around a year in 2020 and 2021’ [1].
From what I've read, it has something to do with Russia targeting transformers in Ukraine. Since transformers are usually highly reliable, unexpected needs for replacements are a problem.
A fascinating glimpse of how much complexity underpins our modern world actually works. Obviously they must have factories for these things, but I hadn't considered the supply chain there.
shigawire 18 hours ago [-]
I'd only heard of it in the context of a solar flare blowing out all the transformers and we'd be SOL
halJordan 16 hours ago [-]
It's been a huge problem in Ukraine. The Russians have been targeting the large ones, and it's been a large part of their blackouts. To the extent they protect key ones with patriot batteries. But apparently no one manufactures them anymore on the continent. Or like, they produce one or two a year. So the euros have had to gift their spare ones. It's quite an interesting story
ButlerianJihad 6 hours ago [-]
Russian troops are not acts of God, but acts of war. I believe that GP is thinking of interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME), which is among the potentially disruptive forms of space weather: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection#Impact_o...
But sabotage by earthbound troops is of a different character. Disruption by space weather could happen in peacetime, or anywhere, and could disrupt many vulnerable devices simultaneously, or even be blamed on hackers or enemy action.
https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_16.html
IIUC the real bottleneck is in transmission (>50kv) not distribution transformers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_electronics
Also regarding child comment, how did we already get to slurs for those with developmental disabilities? Can we avoid those, please?
Solid-state drives do indeed not contain non-solid-state critical parts, but solid-state transformers do.
“Lead times, or the time taken between an initial order and its delivery, for some high-voltage transformers have increased to multiple years from around a year in 2020 and 2021’ [1].
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-power-companies-s...
But sabotage by earthbound troops is of a different character. Disruption by space weather could happen in peacetime, or anywhere, and could disrupt many vulnerable devices simultaneously, or even be blamed on hackers or enemy action.