Analysis of Prospective Technologies of Electric Power Transmission over Long Distances

Abstract

The article analyzes the influence of global and regional challenges on the prospective technologies of electric power transmission over long distances. The analysis is carried out proceeding from the data of the National Technical Initiative set forth by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, the international financial organization (The World Bank), and the Concept of Long-Term Social and Economic Development of the Russian Federation. To identify the most significant challenges and analyze their influence on the social and economic sphere, the strategic analysis method (SWOT analysis) was used, which has shown that global and regional challenges are closely linked with each other.

Active development of renewable energy sources (RES), which entails the development of distributed generation, is the main factor able to compromise the technology of power transmission over long distances. On the other hand, the emergence of new large remote generation centers based on RES opens prospects for developing the technology of power transmission over long distances. Active development Arctic regions, formation of global energy rings, and energy security concerns give a strong impetus for further development of electric power transmission over long distances.

In the context of global challenges in terms of their effect on the social sphere, the technology of power transmission over long distances is seen as an important tool for providing all regions around the world with accessible electric energy under the conditions of globally changing power industry. Electric power should be accessible to regions for personal use by the population in the region, and for setting up favorable conditions for functioning of existing and creation of new energy-intensive city-forming enterprises. In connection with the importance of solving this problem, a need for development of various long-distance power transmission technologies with the maximum technical and economic efficiency should emerge around the world.

The need for gradually restructuring the electric power supply arrangements in different regions around the world will have the strongest influence on the economy in the context of global challenges. Active efforts taken by developed countries to diversify the structure of their power industries through expanding the use of non-hydrocarbon renewable energy sources and to make them less dependent on countries exporting conventional energy carriers will entail a gradual shift of the world centers of generation. In contrast, the factors that prompt India and China to become the main locomotives of economic growth around the world and the emergence of the world’s new economic development centers in Asia and Latin America will entail the shift of the world’s centers of electricity consumption by the population and industry toward new parts of the globe.

The above-mentioned tendencies will generate the need to dynamically change the existing structure of electricity production, and a need will arise to use entirely new modern adaptive electric networks with long transit lines over the territory of Eurasian Asian part and South America. If a significant progress is achieved in the efficiency of solar power generation technologies, power bridges may emerge between Africa and Eurasian European and Asian parts.