Chapter 95: Song of Electricity (Part 6)

“That can only be coordinated by the Planning Department, with the understanding of all departments,” Chang Kaishen interjected. “All enterprises should stagger their electricity consumption.”

“Easier said than done. Some equipment can’t just be shut down…”

Someone below began to mutter.

Chang Kaishen ignored it. Qian Liushi pretended not to hear. In fact, this was a chicken-and-egg problem. The power industry itself had a great demand for electricity. They currently lacked both, so they could only desperately compress the current power supply and divert it to the production of raw materials.

Faraday thought to himself: The Planning Department is really not a place for humans. No wonder Wu De’s hair has thinned so much after being director for a few years.

“…Regarding power transmission and distribution. We brought a batch of 110V transformers and a few tons of transformer oil from the old world, but it’s obviously far from enough for our future needs. Even maintaining the current scale in the long term will be difficult. So we need to manufacture our own 110V transformers, and if possible, even higher voltage ones like 35kV and 110kV. Can we find a substitute for transformer oil? How long of a research and development process do we need, and what kind of materials do we need to manufacture this equipment?”

“I can answer your question about transformer oil,” an Elder from the chemical department said with a subtle smile. “Actually, this is not difficult. The raw material for transformer oil is naphthenic crude oil. Brunei’s Seria crude oil meets the requirements. As long as the Planning Department approves the implementation of this project…”

A suppressed laughter rippled through the crowd. This was how industry worked. It was highly dependent on technological reserves and numerous basic industries. Even if there were no technical difficulties in the entire industrial chain from beginning to end, to produce a product, you had to first build up that industrial chain. Which technology tree to climb first was always a point of contention among the Elders.

The petroleum industry had always been placed quite far back in the industrial chain by the Planning Department. For now, there was indeed not much need for crude oil. The small amount of oil needed for vehicles and ships could be roughly met by the byproducts of coal tar refining. If they were less particular, they could also make do with gas engines.

Qian Liushi waited for the laughter to subside and continued without comment, “From the information provided to us by the industrial sector, our ability to expand power generation is mainly concentrated in thermal power. Hydropower involves many prerequisite technologies and has higher technical requirements.”

“In terms of thermal power, is it necessary to build steam turbines? Is it more suitable for us to directly use steam engines to drive generators? How do we control the power generation process? Should the manufacturing of generator sets be as standardized as possible, or should it be tailored to specific needs?…”

He raised many and varied questions, one, two, three, four… covering all aspects of power generation and transmission and distribution. To prevent the participants from forgetting so many topics, he even had the meeting minutes mimeographed and distributed, one copy per person.

“…For now, these are all I can think of. We will only discuss technical issues here. Please raise other issues for discussion at the Yuanlao Yuan meeting.”

Qian Liushi’s last sentence meant that they should not mention the future structure of the power company for the time being. Because everyone knew that this would be an incredibly huge behemoth in the future. The Power Bureau, who wouldn’t want to raise such a pet? In the future, you could even use it to challenge the state.

In the old world, the new electricity law had been debated for more than ten years but never passed. If you dare to pass it, I dare to raise prices, and I dare to cut off power. Therefore, although the Executive Committee had not discussed this publicly, there was a tacit understanding to “weaken” the power companies, allowing statements like “steam engines conquer the world” and “gas engines are omnipotent” to run rampant.

From a political standpoint, neither the Executive Committee nor the Planning Department wanted such a monster to appear in their sight. So Qian Liushi had to make a gesture to fully demonstrate that he had “no ambition” in the power company. At the same time, he did not want the power company in the new world to become a family business passed down from father to son, and then from son to grandson, like the old one.

However, Qian Liushi soon found that he had overestimated everyone’s technical capabilities. The questions he raised did not lead to a lively scene of everyone eagerly offering suggestions. Most people knew nothing about power equipment and had no manufacturing experience. Only a few people proposed some solutions, for example, asphalt could be used as an insulating material for cables, which was a common insulating material for early cables. Asphalt can withstand a temperature of 105°C, is easy to apply and shape, and has certain anti-corrosion and waterproof functions. It was still a commonly used insulating material until the 21st century.

Apart from that, no other useful technical solutions were proposed. So the meeting quickly descended into endless rambling. It started when someone suggested that since the manufacturing of power transmission and distribution equipment was difficult, it would be better to widely establish self-sufficient power stations and directly use direct current. After a firm counterattack from Faraday that alternating current was the king, this Elder listed the support for direct current from famous figures like Edison and Kelvin, as well as the application of direct current in China after the year 2000. Then, a gossip-loving Elder righteously pointed out the story of how Edison used the financial power and personal reputation of General Electric to slander and suppress the alternating current invented by his poor employee, Tesla. But in the end, alternating current still broke through the suppression and threats of the shameless capitalist and became the king of power transmission. Then, the gossip historian immediately pointed out that the success of alternating current was actually achieved by Tesla with the financial support of the owner of Westinghouse Electric, and that General Electric at the time was not a monopolistic, all-powerful entity.

When Tesla was mentioned, his great Earth-ionosphere resonance power transmission was also remembered, and everyone immediately had a heated discussion about its principles and feasibility.

The meeting inevitably descended into lengthy theoretical debates and subsequent personal attacks.

Later, the conference room was in an uproar:

“Burn the DC heretics!”

“In heaven and on earth, only atmospheric transmission is supreme!”

“Hang the AC conservatives! Confiscate their female servants!!”

“Damn it, last time you were staring at my Fengjie. What the hell did you do in the two minutes I was out of the office! Why was my Fengjie’s face all red!”

“He only lasts three seconds. In two minutes, he could have had several rounds.”

“Hahahahaha…”

Seeing the chaotic scene, Chang Kaishen excused himself to smoke and never returned. Qian Liushi, as the temporary meeting host, sat there, his face turning red and white. But it was almost time for dinner. When the female attendant from the General Office came in with a cart of work lunches, ringing a bell, this meeting, recorded in the history books as a successful and significant event, finally came to a temporary end.

During lunch, Faraday, holding a paper lunch box, found Qian Liushi, who was eating with his head down in a corner, and sat opposite him. “Qian Fushuai, how the hell did our meeting turn out like this? We need to set the record straight and punish the heretics.”

“Well, how should I know it would go so off-topic? We can’t let these bastards ramble on this afternoon.”

“Your questions were too abstract. It’s true that the power industry is a composite of the machinery and chemical industries, but the key is that these people haven’t worked in this field. You can’t treat them all as people who have a clear understanding of the entire power industry like us. They don’t even know the basic principles of oil-filled and air circuit breakers. Expecting them to come up with solutions is like playing a lute to a cow.”

“Right, I think I made a metaphysical mistake.”

“We can’t continue like this this afternoon. How about this, I think the most crucial thing now is that everyone doesn’t have a clear understanding of the basic information. We need to educate them first.”

“In the power industry, a slightly decent position requires at least a four-year secondary vocational school diploma in the old world. Even to be a high-voltage electrician, you need to go to a technical school…”

“Let’s educate them first, give them some basic concepts,” Faraday said. “Otherwise, this meeting can’t go on.”

After a half-hour lunch break, the meeting resumed. When everyone was present, Qian Liushi cleared his throat, stood up, and said, “Comrades, brothers, this morning, through a heated discussion, well, although we didn’t reach any consensus, we did frankly exchange opinions. Now, I hope we won’t go off-topic this afternoon.”

Chang Kaishen finally returned from his “smoke break.” He stood up and said with a sincere expression, “When it comes to generating and transmitting electricity, you guys are the experts. When it comes to equipment, we are. The manufacturing of this power equipment is entrusted to you all!”

“That’s right, gentlemen, let’s not talk about DC and ionospheric power transmission anymore, shall we?” Qian Liushi chimed in. “If DC was viable, the British, Germans, and Soviets would have done it long ago. And let’s not talk about ionospheric power transmission until we have nuclear fusion. How about this, let’s have Faraday first give us a talk on the power industry. After that, we can analyze specific problems.”

Faraday took out a stack of glass slides he had prepared a few days ago. He had long anticipated this scene. Qian Liushi had overestimated everyone’s abilities.

He walked to the projector and placed a slide on it. “Everyone knows that the Second Industrial Revolution was the electrical revolution. But a very important difference between the electrical revolution and the steam revolution is that the development of the steam engine was a continuous improvement in details and processes. Its basic theory was relatively simple, and there were no major theoretical changes. But the electrical revolution, from its beginning until a hundred years after World War II, was a joint development of practice and theory. In 1820, Oersted discovered the magnetic effect of electric current, that is, an electric current produces a magnetic field. In 1831, the law of electromagnetic induction was discovered by my predecessor, Michael Faraday, that is, cutting magnetic induction lines produces an electric current.”