[CCIE]

Interesting stuff. I never realized the transmission losses of HVDC were less than AC. Though it seems like it only makes sense at very long distances because the AC/DC conversion equipment is expensive. Grounding the conversion stations also sounds very involved.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_DC_Intertie

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current

 

[Sean Nelson]

Interesting stuff. I never realized the transmission losses of HVDC were less than AC. Though it seems like it only makes sense at very long distances because the AC/DC conversion equipment is expensive. Grounding the conversion stations also sounds very involved.

Yes, interesting indeed. Until now I had always thought that the main reason for DC interties were to eliminate the necessity of synchronizing the interconnected grids.

But as CCIE says, you need long runs to achieve the benefits - that might work for trunk transmission lines but as soon as you hit a city with its transformer switchyards and distribution runs, the conversion losses far outweigh the transmission losses. And it's those "last mile" costs that are the highest for the utilities. So even before you consider the tremendous resilience of the very highly entrenched AC standard, it sure looks like a non-starter to me.

 

[VoltenRock]

For these costs, might be worth exploring just BUYING or building a nearby commercial charging station so you can defray some costs by charging other EV owners to use it. The only downside is that someone else might be using it when you need it.