Thread

Hitachi to double US production of small and medium-sized power transformers

37 points · 20 comments · JumpCrisscross

jakedata · 1790586198 · focus · HN ↗
I read about Solid State Transformers <a href="https://www.powermag.com/the-solid-state-shift-reinventing-the-transformer-for-modern-grids/" rel="nofollow">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.
<a href="https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_16.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_16.html
1. ahartmetz · 1790586892 · focus · HN ↗
  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.
  1. jakedata · 1790589228 · focus · HN ↗
    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.
  2. algo_trader · 1790597026 · focus · HN ↗
    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 · 1790602941 · focus · HN ↗
    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.
    jauntywundrkind · 1790622112 · focus · HN ↗
    Yeah, it's all stacking. Lots and lots and lots of IGBT in series. Now though they have pretty advanced gate control, to build "Modular Multi-Level Converter (MMC)", switching various groups of modules on and off to approximate a sine wave. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HVDC_converter#Modular_Multi-Level_Converter_(MMC)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HVDC_converter#Modular_Multi-L...
    Fun facts: the Trans-Bay Cable is credited by wikipedia at least as the first MMC implementation. Started ~2003, permitted 2007, completed 2010, the cable is 53 miles, and runs at 230kV, providing reliable power to SF; a response to a critical 1998 power outage when two local power plants shut down (since decomissioned for good) and the grid failed to carry the load. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_Bay_Cable" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_Bay_Cable
    Coincidentaly, the original patent expired in 2003, so uh, interest may have started rising recently. None the less, thanks Rainer Marquardt and Anton Lesnicar for your MMC invention. <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1304403" rel="nofollow">https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1304403
  3. ButlerianJihad · 1790597442 · focus · HN ↗
    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.
    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_electronics" rel="nofollow">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?
    ahartmetz · 1790602410 · focus · HN ↗
    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.
    quickthrowman · 1790619747 · focus · HN ↗
    Yes, a solid-state motor starter uses semiconductors (thyristors) to switch the line voltage power instead of using (an) electromagnetic contactor(s): <a href="https://www.eaton.com/content/dam/eaton/products/industrialcontrols-drives-automation-sensors/legacy-page---soft-starters/solid-state-soft-start-motor-controller-and-starter-ap03902001e.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.eaton.com/content/dam/eaton/products/industrialc...
    jakedata · 1790613538 · focus · HN ↗
    I assumed it was a typo and they were actually referring to "cretons", a type of French-Canadian potted pork.
  4. quickthrowman · 1790615659 · focus · HN ↗
    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.

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