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jakedata 4 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 3 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.
algo_trader 34 minutes 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.
ButlerianJihad 27 minutes 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?
34 minutes ago [-]
pvab3 13 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.
ahartmetz 3 hours ago [-]
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.
JumpCrisscross 11 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].
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 12 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 11 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 23 minutes 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?
“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.