Nikola Tesla: From Practical to Untangible

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Nikola Tesla From Practical to Untangible

• Dr. Marija Ilic
• MIT, EECS Senior Research Scientist and NSF, ECS
  Program Director ilic_at_mit.edu
• Berkeley Seminar on Tesla, November 13, 000

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Ranges of Teslas contributions

• Very practical today ----major Basis for
  power generation, delivery and consumption
  (urban electrification)
• Still untangible--major relevance Qualitatively
  different concepts under ultra high voltages
  future energy sources quantum phenomena

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Practical Three phase AC generation,
distribution and consumption

• Review of the underlying electric power grid of
  today (California)
• How is it changing
• The rotating three phase concept remains for
  majority of energy conversion
• Likely to stay for a long time to come

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Electric System Time Line1
Decades/
Years Years/Months
Day
Hour
Minutes
Seconds Cycles
1 5-
5 5-1 lt10 100
Build
Maintain
Schedule
Operate
Operate
Energy
Ancillary
1 Shimon Awerbuch, Michael Crew, Paul
Kleindorfer
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Design, Operation and Control of Power System
(California)

• Objective Produce, Deliver and Consume
  Electricity Reliably under Normal Operating
  Conditions with Possible Occurrence of Plausible
  Contingency
• Continual Balance of Supply and Demand
• Lack of Practical Means of Storage
• Long Distance Transmission
• Uncertainties in Load and Equipment

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Continual Balance between Supply and Demand
under Normal Condition with Load Uncertainty
Energy Imbalance
UNCERTAINTY
- Base
- Ramp
- Fluctuations
Regulation
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Synchronism of all power generators

• Scheduled generation to meet anticipated demand
• Automatic frequency and voltage control on the AC
  generators despite unexpected small changes
• Under large outages---not automated and very hard

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Re-emerence of DC transmission

• From a sinusoidal three phase, rectified signal
  to DC, transmitted as DC and converted back into
  AC at the user side
• Transmission losses dominant question as well as
  the complexity of managing on-line a mix of DC
  and AC signals

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Ongoing Changes

• Technological (cost-effective small and smart
  power supply, direct line flow control devices
  (FACTS), Internet, customer automation)
• Organizational (competitive power generation,
  electricity markets, customer choice, potential
  for PBR-based transmission businesses open
  access)

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Regional Electric Markets
Source DOE Electricity 2002 Conceptual Design
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Regional Electric Markets
Source DOE Electricity 2002 Conceptual Design
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Electric System Time Line Market and Physical
Invest
Forward
Spot
Vol
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Maintain
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Operate
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Spi
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mi
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pat
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cs
bili
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Value of New Generation Technology

• Increased Efficiency
• Flexibility
• Ability to be paid higher price in reserve and
  ancillary markets
• Modularity (Fuel Cells, Micro Turbines)
• Decreased Lead Time on Installation
• Ability to expand capacity
• Movable Technology
• Ability to capture locational prices (eg.
  North-south trend in California)
• Zero Emission Technology
• Eliminates Requirements for emission charge
  payments

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Distributed Power Systems

• The power grid evolution from strong EHV large
  power plants to a much weaker EHV grid and very
  many distributed power suppliers closer to the
  users
• Smart wires, users and suppliers interacting
  through IT
• Distributed reliability provision
• Question How does one get from here to there?

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Back to the dilemma Edison vs Tesla

• TESLA CONTINUES
• Small power sources majority still AC three
  phase rotating (Tesla) examples (from very
  large, through smaller--wind, induction machines
  through diesel-based micro-turbines)

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Return of Edison The power of micro grids

• The UK Economist, August 2000
• Design of local grids, in which reliability is
  provided locally and not from the neighbors
• No longer all AC an interesting mix of AC and DC
• Ultimately, we may see all (or majority) of
  generation based on Teslas concepts and the
  delivery all DC (Edison concepts) NOT a
  synchronously operated grid potentially simpler
  and more efficient and flexible

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Tesla and the less tangible, hot research areas

• Question How small can small be and still be
  based on electromagnetic induction and when is
  that the capacitive effects begin to dominate
  (the entire area of Micro Electro Mechanical
  Systems--MEMS)
• Questions concerning very high voltage phenomena
  MV ranges (future energy sources---based on
  qualitatively different laws of physics, in
  particular quantum forces)

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What do Tesla and Computer Scientists have in
Common?

• Casimir effect (two parallel plates setup in
  vacuum and out of no-where attractive force)
  plates made of dipole molecule may become
  conductive.
• Potential link with Quantum Computing, the
  area of CS, related to Casimir effect-like
  phenomena
• Not clear if the evolving Tesla culture has to do
  with the overall spiritual strivings of computer
  scientists as they attempt QC or there may be
  much more
• In this case, only time will tell

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Conclusions

• Teslas lasting legacy on urban electrification
• A very interesting question (Berkeley, MIT)
  generalization of the three phase rotating field
  to capacitive concepts --MEMS
• Tesla discovered more than once qualitatively
  different concepts at ultrahigh voltages. This
  idea continues as we search for new energy
  sources. How high voltage is high enough to
  demonstrate a phenomenon of interest?
• CS community Is there more of a link than just
  spiritual strives into the unknown?