Powerline example
Contents
Overview
Sometimes you need to transfer more than 15kW.
Utility poles are too large to easily fit indoors, but they're cheap and can be used for connecting outlying parts of your base.
Basics
Poles and wires, both creating a powerline, are very similar to every other cable, only without isolation. (air is an insulator) To connect two powerlines, one must use high voltage cable equal to the distance between the two poles, plus one to accommodate for slack. The amount of wires the network calculates between poles is equal to the amount of wires used to create the connection. Due the very high voltages, power lines have a very low loss. The losses may be slightly higher than VHV cables but power lines are vastly cheaper. Consider the costs and benefits when choosing which power transportation system to use. Powerline voltages can reach as high as 12800V, other stats are pretty similar to HV cables, that is: U = 6.25A P = Depending on voltage (P = Vused * 6.25A) R = 0.2ohm
Poles
Highly integrated pole containing transformer, downlink and connection feet
Pole is a multiblock, measuring 1 block wide, 4 blocks tall and 1 block in depth
Usage
Simply right click on two poles you want to connect! Poles rotate automatically. You cannot connect poles that are farther than 24 blocks apart. In order to transfer electricity on poles, one needs to use the Transformer Pole on any point connecting between the power lines and an electrical network. Electricity going into the poles will step the voltage up by 4x, allowing it to travel down the line with minimal loss. It will also step down the voltage back down if you draw electricity from the poles, allowing it to be safely used.
If you hear the transformers humming, it means your poles are working! However, if they hum violently one might consider disconnecting the poles quickly as too much current is passing through and the entire power line network is at risk of failure. Steps should be taken to prevent this from happening, as large-scale outages can be very expensive on larger networks.
Examples themselves
And finally, the examples:
Generation and Transmission
Poles comming from the Power Plant or generation station
Our Wires comming from Power Plant (12800V) input substation. Transformers in the middle step down the voltage and the wires at the top (3200V) supply the "City"
Distribution
Poles comming from substation go all along the street, and give power wherever it's needed
The transformer step down voltage to 800v. The devices which require this voltage are supplied with it.
The devices witch require lower voltages also get 800v. They must have their own transformer.
There are basically two transformers, each for one house, to supply them with correct 200v electricity
At the end of the line there is a circuit breaker for additional protection. Now end user can do whatever he wants to
Conclusion
This simple example is one of millions of ways of using powerlines. I hope you see the potential.
