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And to think, the epic ac versus dc battle that we thought ended in the 19th century is still very much with us in the 21st. That it continues to be is a tribute to technology advancement in a number of areas and in the global involvement and implementation of that technology. The initial detrimental aspect of dc transfer of power was the difficulty of transforming dc voltages given the technology of that era, which insured the triumph of ac. But even in those early years dc had its advocates. Uno Lamm, of ASEA in Sweden and whose name graces a prominent PES Award, was one of those early dc advocates but he was stymied by technical problems. The 1950–1960 decade saw great advancement in high voltage direct current (HVDC) technology, initially in Europe followed by an Atlantic Ocean crossing to the United States. The decision of our Editorial Board to devote an issue to the HVDC story was in recognition of the importance of this technology and, indeed, this is very much the story of its inception, growth, application and future.
In this Issue
We are most fortunate to have true guiding lights behind this issue. Willis Long of the University of Wisconsin and Stig Nilsson of Exponent, Inc. are recognized experts in the area and have many years of experience with the technology. They have assembled a group of articles that cover the subject in a thorough manner. I am indebted to them for their efforts and pleased to offer these articles to our readers.
The introductory article "HVDC Transmission: Yesterday and Today" by Bill Long and Stig Nilsson sets the tone for the issue by reviewing the history of many decades of innovation that have lead to our present state and offers the background setting for the remaining four articles which provide significant details of the technology as well as information regarding specific projects. Bill and Stig introduce these four articles, enumerated below, in their erudite introductory article:
- "The ABCs of HVDC Transmission Technologies" by Michael P. Bahrman and Brian K. Johnson
- "Pacific HVDC Intertie" by Wayne Litzenberger and Peter Lips
- "Building a Plan for HVDC " by Michael Henderson, Julien Gagnon, David Bertagnolli, Bill Hosie, Gary DeShazo, and Brian Silverstein
- "800-kV HVDC on the Horizon" by Marcio Szechtman, P. Sarma Maruvada, and R.N. Nayak.
The issue's "Business Scene" offers a detailed view of the Iranian electric industry restructuring. With the global efforts in the area of de/re-regulation continuing, it is of interest to be able to see what is happening positively and negatively in different parts of the world. In his introduction to the column, Associate Editor Gerry Sheblé offers commentary to put the piece into prospective and to indicate that there will be yet another report in a future IEEE Power & Energy Magazine issue from a different part of our world offering additional views.
In the early days of U.S. electrical engineering, a group of visionaries joined together and realized the dream of Andrew Carnegie to join all major engineering societies of the day under one roof—the United Engineering Building in the heart of New York City. Not only did Carnegie provide leadership to this endeavor, but also he also was responsible for much of the early financial support. Mary Ann Hoffman, the archivist at the IEEE History Center, is the author of this issue's "History" column that has been edited and is introduced by Associate Editor Carl Sulzberger. Yet again, I am grateful to Mary Ann for another sterling contribution.
In our "In My View" column, Dick Schultz of ITC Transmission takes us back to his experiences with the concepts, applications, and nonapplications of HVDC. The column, aptly titled "HVDC Options Today—An Underused and Undervalued Solution," offers a personalized historical view of an engineer's experiences as it relates to HVDC. Bill Long introduced Dick to the subject at the course he conducted at the University of Wisconsin, and Dick has been involved, albeit not always successfully, in HVDC projects through the years since. He analyzes possible applications of HVDC technology that far too often were scuttled by economic considerations as well as looking at situations (notably the August 2003 blackout) where proper application of HVDC technology might have had far-reaching mitigating effects. And, in conclusion, Dick offers a plea for efforts to produce lower cost conversion equipment to allow the full potential of HVDC to be realized.
Though somewhat belated, I sadly inform you of the departure from the IEEE of our managing editor Desiree de Myer. Desiree was a great asset, and she will be sorely missed. We certainly wish her much success in her new career. Her loss is considerably mitigated by having Geri Krolin-Taylor step into the breach and assume the duties of the managing editor until a permanent replacement for Desiree is found. Geri is no stranger to this task, having performed it most competently during a previous interim period.
