Chapter 1305 - Song of Electricity (Part 5)

Chang Kaishen noted that several power-sector transmigrators who had used "discussing meeting content" as an excuse to gather and drink at the Farm Teahouse the previous evening were now sitting ramrod-straight and in high spirits around the conference table. This pleased him greatly. Clearing his throat, he said: "As you may already know, through the efforts of Transmigrator Faraday, the Council's first independently developed and produced practical motor has been successfully tested. I won't belabor the great significance of this progress for the Empire here. On behalf of the Energy Ministry and the Planning Commission, I extend warm congratulations to everyone on the R&D and production front."

Although everyone present knew the true meaning of "independently developed," they still burst into warm applause—after all, even with Tamiya plastic model kits, assembling a good model still required good craftsmanship. And the "kits" in Faraday's hands were the kind of sailing ship models from Eastern European small factories. Just getting something built was impressive.

After the applause died down, Committee Member Chang continued: "The successful manufacture of electric motors is only a small step in the process of establishing our prime mover system. We have now begun widespread use of steam engines, but steam engine use is constrained by site conditions, transportation, fuel supply, and numerous other limitations. Moreover, they have low safety margins, and their high energy consumption and relatively low energy density are insufficient to meet the needs of our rapidly developing enterprise. Additionally, electricity is indispensable to the metallurgical and chemical industries. Therefore, promoting electrification will inevitably bring transformative changes and rapid advancement to our enterprise. Everyone in the Council—all colleagues in the Executive Committee and Planning Commission—earnestly hopes to develop our power industry as quickly as possible. And the development of our power industry rests on all of you."

Another round of warm applause followed.

"Now, I would like to invite the director of the power development plan, Comrade Qian Liushi, to discuss our power development plan."

Qian Liushi stood up and walked to the podium with a folder, beaming. He first shook hands warmly with Chang Kaishen, then gestured for the transmigrator by the window to draw the curtains. He then turned on the projector sitting on the table.

This wasn't a computer projector but a traditional overhead projector, one the transmigrators present were quite familiar with. For Qian Liushi, this type of projector was the most advanced multimedia equipment he'd encountered during his elementary and middle school years. He'd even made many transparencies for teachers. Now no one had the time to spend making PowerPoints on computers, and without the internet, they couldn't download suitable images and materials from the vast sea of online resources. They could only draw by hand—and drawing on the computer by hand wasn't any faster than drawing directly on plastic sheets.

Moreover, for this type of discussion meeting, a simple diagram was sufficient. Besides, everyone frequently had new ideas. You could draw while someone else was speaking, then put your finished diagram on the projector when it was your turn to talk, and even sketch modifications while speaking. It was truly a killer app tailor-made for the transmigrators.

The Planning Commission had purchased twenty of these before D-Day. Afterward, due to force of habit, digital projectors continued to be used in meetings except in the Education Department, which immediately began using them in schools. Only recently, when projector bulb stocks dropped to warning levels, did anyone remember these overhead projectors.

Since most had been taken by the Education Department, the remaining ones became hot commodities, and only major departments like the Planning Commission got their hands on any.

Qian Liushi cleared his throat and said:

"I will now briefly explain today's meeting agenda based on previous discussions on the forum and in other meetings. I hope everyone will supplement anything I may have left out. First, let me discuss the current state of our Lingao Power Company."

Qian Liushi and Faraday had already had a lengthy discussion with Chang Kaishen, Wu De, and others at the Planning Commission a few days earlier. The discussion had mainly concerned the Power sector's current situation and the production capacity and technical level of existing machinery manufacturing and metal smelting industries. The Power Company was actually just a power generation, transmission, and distribution enterprise; the manufacturing of power equipment actually depended on the industrial sector, and the level of mechanical manufacturing and metallurgical capabilities determined the scale and standards of the power industry.

Lingao Power's total generation capacity currently connected to the grid was 1,120 KW. Of this, 600 KW was hydroelectric—the three 200 KW units at Bairren Hydroelectric Station. Thermal power contributed 520 KW: 100 KW from the Bopu Fengcheng power station, and 420 KW from Bopu Thermal Station—driven by two Czech-manufactured stationary locomobiles.

Beyond this 1,120 KW, they also had 400 KW of wind, small hydro, solar, and thermal power not connected to the grid, operating in self-supply mode. Most of these provided living electricity to scattered outposts and had no significance for the power industry. Only the 100 KW generator set at Sanya driven by a locomobile and the 150 KW generator set at Ma'ao Steel Company driven by a diesel engine—now converted to gas—were notable.

Lingao Power's "grid"—in the view of power professionals like Qian Liushi, the transmission and distribution system consisting of 10 KV cables running along the Wenlan River could hardly be called a "grid." It was merely a transmission system composed of a single busbar: just two outgoing lines with a few Pi connections and a few small distribution rooms. Primitive and crude. Even so, from the very beginning, the Lingao Power Company had firmly demanded grid-connected power supply. The goal was the stability and continuous supply capability that a grid provided. In self-supply power station mode, equipment maintenance meant power outages. With a grid, generating equipment maintenance wouldn't affect power supply. For many departments and enterprises requiring continuous electricity, this was extremely important.

However, at the start, this "grid" was truly too crude—not only did it fail to demonstrate much superiority, but it collapsed frequently. The main problem was initially insufficient parallel generation power. Only with great effort had the Lingao Power Company managed to bring parallel generating power to barely exceed 1 MW, which finally produced some grid effect. Otherwise, any equipment failure—including large load disconnections—would cause this "grid" to collapse. For this reason, Qian Liushi had always hoped to install the other two 200 KW hydroelectric generators—this would give this primitive "grid" more stable operation.

The entire power system used 10 KV/400 V transmission and distribution standards. User voltage was industrial 380 V and residential 220 V—consistent with old-timeline standards. All power users except self-supply stations were distributed along the Wenlan River—Council agencies and industrial and agricultural enterprises concentrated around the Bairren City and Bopu bases. The bulk of electricity consumption went to the chemical sector's electrolysis processes and the mechanical sector's precision machining and electroplating. Other users with guaranteed power supply included medical facilities, pharmaceuticals, and schools. Then there was computer power for the various computing centers. By comparison, transmigrators' living and office electricity was at the bottom of the power supply priority list—electricity was simply too tight.

"...Our industrial technology needs to reach the next level, especially in chemicals and metallurgy, which both depend on sufficient power supply. The Lingao grid's installed capacity must see major development, so the next step is to invest sufficient effort in generation and transmission/distribution research." Qian Liushi removed the "Power Production and Supply Status" transparency and replaced it with another.

"The main problem we face now is that we need breakthroughs in materials science." Qian Liushi knew: generators, motors, transmission and distribution equipment... None of these were high-tech. They had plenty of reference materials and original models. But manufacturing this equipment was beyond the current capabilities of what their industry could provide in terms of materials.

"First is domestically produced silicon steel sheets. Ma'ao Steel Company is already organizing a technical research assault. We don't have electric arc furnaces—and even if we did, we probably couldn't afford the electricity—so we can only use fire smelting. Current experimental results show both quality and output are unsatisfactory."

This was hardly surprising. Silicon steel was an advanced specialty steel with high difficulty. In the old timeline, it was manufactured using electric arc furnaces. Expecting Ma'ao Steel Company to produce results immediately was out of the question.

"...We are proceeding with further technical research on this problem." Ge Xinxin from the Ma'ao Central Heavy Industry Laboratory stood up. She was an attractive woman approaching thirty who, like the other male transmigrators around her, wore blue cloth work clothes in the field uniform style with four pockets. Only her ponytail tied with ribbon revealed her feminine characteristics. Of course, if you sat close to her, you could also catch a faint whiff of perfume.

"For silicon steel smelting, the biggest difficulty is silicon powder preparation. We're working on that. However, our lab has also proposed an alternative method for producing silicon—using copper or aluminum reduction. Which method we ultimately adopt will depend on experimental results." She surveyed the transmigrators in the conference room who were giving her their full attention and said in a clear voice: "But I can guarantee that with one more month, we will definitely overcome this difficulty."

Qian Liushi nodded: "Good. If that's the case, we can consider silicon steel mass production solved." He continued: "Next is transmission wire. We currently cannot manufacture steel-core aluminum stranded wire, so our only option is bare copper wire. This involves electrolytic copper production—not only wire needs electrolytic copper, but motor production also requires large amounts of it. Given our current power supply situation, this is somewhat tight."

In twenty-first-century China, producing one ton of electrolytic copper consumed approximately 309 kilowatt-hours of electricity. At Lingao's technological level, this energy consumption would probably need to at least double.

(End of Chapter)