Chapter 1306 - Song of Electricity (Part 6)

"That will require Planning Commission coordination and understanding from all departments," Chang Kaishen interjected. "Enterprises will need to stagger peak power usage."

"Easy to say—some equipment can't just be shut down on demand..." someone began muttering below.

Chang Kaishen paid it no mind. Qian Liushi pretended not to hear. This was really a chicken-and-egg problem. The power industry itself had enormous power requirements. They currently lacked both and could only squeeze current power supply to the limit, diverting it toward raw material production.

Faraday thought to himself: The Planning Commission truly isn't a place for humans. No wonder Wu De's hair has thinned considerably after several years as Director.

"...Regarding transmission and distribution. We brought a batch of 11 kV/400 V transformers and several tons of transformer oil from the old timeline, but obviously this is far from sufficient for our future needs—even just maintaining current scale long-term will be difficult. So we need to manufacture our own 10 kV/400 V transformers. If possible, we should also build higher-voltage transformers like 35 kV and 110 kV. Can we find a substitute for transformer oil? How long a development and testing process do we need, and what materials are required to manufacture this equipment?"

"I can answer the transformer oil question," said a transmigrator from the Chemical Department with a subtle smile. "Actually, this isn't difficult at all. The raw material for transformer oil is naphthenic crude. Brunei's Seria crude fits the requirements. As long as the Planning Commission approves this project..."

A wave of suppressed laughter rippled through the room. This was how industry worked—heavily dependent on technological reserves and numerous foundational industries. Even if the entire production chain had no technical difficulties from start to finish, you still had to establish the production chain before you could produce a product.

In the old timeline's context of internationalized mass production and trade, market procurement could solve the requirements of each link. But in a place like Lingao that started with absolutely nothing, every production chain had to be built by the Council itself. Which technology tree to climb first had always been a focal point of transmigrator debates.

The petroleum industry had always been placed quite far back in the Planning Commission's industrial priorities. For now, they genuinely didn't need much crude oil—the small amount of motor vehicle and ship fuel needs could be largely met with byproducts refined from coal tar. If standards were lowered further, converting to gas engines could also manage.

After the laughter subsided, Qian Liushi continued without comment: "Based on the materials the industrial sector has provided us: our capacity to expand power generation is mainly concentrated in thermal power. Hydropower involves many prerequisite technologies and higher technical requirements. In thermal power, is there a need to manufacture steam turbines? Or would directly driving generators with steam engines be more suitable for us? How do we control the power generation process? Should generator set manufacturing be maximally standardized, or maximally matched to specific needs?..."

The questions he raised were numerous and varied—point one, point two, point three, point four... They touched on every aspect of power generation and transmission/distribution. To prevent attendees from losing track of so many topics, mimeographed meeting discussion notes had been specially prepared and distributed to everyone.

"...These are the issues I can think of for now. Let's confine this to discussion of technical questions. Please raise other matters at Council sessions."

Qian Liushi's final sentence meant he didn't want anyone bringing up the future power company's institutional structure. Everyone knew this would someday become an incomparably enormous behemoth. Ah, the Power Bureau—who wouldn't want such a pet? In the future, you could even use it to stand up to the state.

In the old timeline, calls for a new electricity law had gone on for over a decade without anyone daring to drop the hammer. You dare, I dare to raise prices. I dare to cut power. So though the Executive Committee hadn't publicly discussed this, there was basically a tacit understanding to "weaken" the power enterprise, allowing statements like "steam engines conquer all" and "gas engines are universal" to proliferate.

From where they sat, neither the Executive Committee nor the Planning Commission wanted such a monster appearing in their field of vision. So Qian Liushi had to strike the right pose, fully demonstrating that he had "no ambitions" regarding the Power Company. At the same time, he hoped the Power Company in this new timeline wouldn't turn back into that hereditary family enterprise passing from father to son to grandson.

However, Qian Liushi soon discovered he had overestimated everyone's technical capabilities. The issues he raised didn't produce the lively scene of everyone eagerly stepping forward to offer advice and solutions. Most people knew nothing about power equipment and had no manufacturing experience. Only a few offered some solutions: for instance, cable insulation could use asphalt—an insulation material commonly used in early cables. Asphalt could withstand temperatures up to 105°C, was easy to apply and shape, and had certain anticorrosion and waterproofing functions. It remained a commonly used insulation material even into the twenty-first century.

Beyond that, no useful technical solutions were proposed. The meeting quickly devolved into aimless rambling. The trigger was someone suggesting that since transmission and distribution equipment manufacturing was difficult, they should instead establish self-supply power stations widely and use DC power directly. After this was firmly rebutted by Faraday's insistence that AC was the righteous path, this transmigrator cited the illustrious Edison's and Lord Kelvin's support for DC, as well as DC applications in China after the year 2000. A gossip-loving transmigrator then righteously pointed out how Edison had used his General Electric Company's financial power and personal fame to slander and suppress his poor employee Tesla's AC invention, but how AC had ultimately broken through the shameless capitalist's suppression and threats to become the righteous path of power transmission. The gossip historian then immediately noted that AC's success had actually been achieved through Tesla's reliance on the Westinghouse Electric Company owner's financial backing, and that General Electric of that era wasn't the all-powerful monopoly people imagined.

Once Tesla was mentioned, someone also brought up Tesla's great Earth-ionosphere resonance power transmission concept. The meeting immediately launched into a vigorous discussion of its principles and feasibility.

The meeting inevitably descended into lengthy theoretical debate followed by personal attacks.

Later and later still, the conference room was in an uproar:

"Burn the DC heretics!"

"In heaven and on earth, only atmospheric transmission!"

"Hang the AC conservative faction! Confiscate their female servants!"

"Dammit, last time you were staring right at my girl Fengjie. What the hell did you do during the two minutes I stepped out? Why was Fengjie blushing?"

"That guy only lasts three seconds—two minutes would be several rounds."

"Hahahaha..."

Seeing the meeting descend into chaos, Chang Kaishen excused himself to go smoke and never returned. Qian Liushi, as the temporary meeting chair, sat there, his face alternating between red and white. But it was nearly mealtime anyway. When the female server from the Office pushed in a cart loaded with boxed lunches, ringing a bell, this historic meeting—recorded in history books as successful, victorious, and of great significance—finally paused.

At lunch, Faraday carried his paper lunch box and found Qian Liushi eating in a corner with his head down. He sat down across from him. "Qian Fushuai, how did our meeting turn into this mess? We need to establish orthodoxy and cast out the heterodox!"

"Hell if I know how it got derailed like this. This afternoon we can't let these clowns keep rambling."

"The questions you raised were too abstract. Electric power industry being a composite of mechanical and chemical industries—that's true enough. The key is these people haven't worked in this field—you can't treat everyone as if they understand the power industry as clearly as we do. They don't even understand the basic principles of oil-filled versus oil-less air circuit breakers. Expecting solutions from them is like playing music to cows."

"Right, I think I made a metaphysical error."

"This afternoon we can't continue like this. Here's what I think: the key problem right now is that everyone doesn't have a clear understanding of the basic materials. We need to give them a primer first."

"In the power industry, any position of decent level required at least a four-year secondary technical school diploma in the old timeline. Even being a high-voltage electrician required technical school..."

"Let's give them a primer and establish basic concepts," Faraday said. "Otherwise this meeting can't proceed."

After the half-hour lunch break ended, the meeting reconvened. Once everyone had assembled, Qian Liushi cleared his throat, stood up, and said: "Comrades, brothers, through our passionate discussion this morning—ahem, though we didn't reach any consensus, everyone candidly exchanged opinions. Now, I hope we can avoid going off-track this afternoon."

Chang Kaishen finally "returned from smoking." He stood up and said with a sincere expression: "We can't handle power generation and transmission. You can't handle equipment manufacturing. Power equipment production is in your hands!"

"That's right, ladies and gentlemen, let's not keep going on about DC and ionospheric transmission," Qian Liushi chimed in. "If DC worked, the British, Germans, and Soviets would have done it long ago. Let's hold off on ionospheric transmission until fusion power generation works out. How about this: let's first have Faraday give everyone a primer on the power industry. After that, we'll analyze specific problems concretely."

Faraday came forward with a stack of transparencies he had rushed to prepare a few days earlier—he had anticipated this scene. Qian Liushi had overestimated everyone's capabilities.

He walked to the projector and placed a sheet on it:

"Everyone knows the Second Industrial Revolution was the Electrical Revolution. But a key difference between the Electrical Revolution and the Steam Revolution is that steam engine development was a process of continuous refinement in details and craftsmanship, with relatively simple basic theory and no major theoretical shifts. The Electrical Revolution, from its beginning through the century after World War II, saw simultaneous development of theory and practice. In 1820, Oersted discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetism—that electric current produces a magnetic field. In 1831, the law of electromagnetic induction was discovered by my predecessor Michael Faraday: that cutting magnetic field lines produces electric current."

(End of Chapter)