Power engineering: Difference between revisions

[[File:Dampfturbine Montage01.jpg|thumb|A steam turbine used to provide electric power.]]

'''Power engineering''', also called '''power systems engineering''', is a subfield of [[electrical engineering]] that deals with the generation, transmission, distribution, and utilization of [[electric power]], and the electrical apparatus connected to such systems. Although much of the field is concerned with the problems of [[three-phase electric power|three-phase AC power]] – the standard for large-scale power transmission and distribution across the modern world – a significant fraction of the field is concerned with the conversion between [[rectifier|AC and DC power]] and the development of specialized power systems such as those used in aircraft or for electric railway networks. Power engineering draws the majority of its theoretical base from [[electrical engineering]] and [[mechanical engineering]].

One of Westinghouse's engineers, [[William Stanley, Jr.|William Stanley]], recognised the problem with connecting transformers in series as opposed to [[series and parallel circuits|parallel]] and also realised that making the iron core of a transformer a fully enclosed loop would improve the [[voltage regulation]] of the secondary winding. Using this knowledge he built the world's first practical transformer based alternating current power system at [[Great Barrington, Massachusetts]] in 1886.<ref>[http://www.edisontechcenter.org/GreatBarrington.html Great Barrington 1886 - Inspiring an industry toward AC power]</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/stanley.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080105063908/http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/stanley.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 5, 2008 | title=Alternating Current Electrification, 1886 | publisher=IEEE | first=Thomas | last=Blalock | date=2004-10-02 | access-date=2008-05-25 }}</ref><!-- <ref>{{US patent reference | number = 349611 | y = 1886 | m = 09 | d = 21 | inventor = William Stanley Jr. | title = Induction Coil}}</ref> --> In 1885 the Italian physicist and electrical engineer [[Galileo Ferraris]] demonstrated an [[induction motor]] and in 1887 and 1888 the Serbian-American engineer [[Nikola Tesla]] filed a range of patents related to power systems including one for a practical two-phase induction motor<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8j5bJ5OkGpgC&pg=PA36 |title=Fritz E. Froehlich, Allen Kent, The Froehlich/Kent Encyclopedia of Telecommunications: Volume 17, page 36 |date= December 1998|isbn=9780824729158 |access-date=2012-09-10|last1=Froehlich |first1=Fritz E. |last2=Kent |first2=Allen |publisher=CRC Press }}</ref><ref>Petar Miljanic, Tesla's Polyphase System and Induction Motor, Serbian Journal of Electrical Engineering, pp.&nbsp;121–130, Vol. 3, No. 2, November 2006.</ref> which Westinghouse licensed for his AC system.

By 1890 the power industry had flourished and power companies had built thousands of power systems (both direct and alternating current) in the United States and Europe – these networks were effectively dedicated to providing electric lighting. During this time a fierce rivalry in the US known as the "[[war of the currents]]" emerged between Edison and Westinghouse over which form of transmission (direct or alternating current) was superior. In 1891, Westinghouse installed the first major power system that was designed to drive an electric motor and not just provide electric lighting. The installation powered a {{convert|100|hp}} synchronous motor at [[Telluride, Colorado]] with the motor being started by a Tesla induction motor.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/niagara.htm | title=The Day They Turned The Falls On | first=Jack | last=Foran | access-date=2008-05-25 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511151552/http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/niagara.htm | archive-date=2008-05-11 }}</ref> On the other side of the Atlantic, [[Oskar von Miller]] built a 20 kV 176&nbsp;km three-phase transmission line from [[Lauffen am Neckar]] to [[Frankfurt am Main]] for the Electrical Engineering Exhibition in Frankfurt.<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.more-powerful-solutions.com/media/ScreenPDF_Hypower_15_72dpi.pdf | author=Voith Siemens (company) | title=HyPower | pages=7 | date=2007-02-01 | access-date=2008-05-25 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120725153629/http://www.more-powerful-solutions.com/media/ScreenPDF_Hypower_15_72dpi.pdf | archive-date=2012-07-25 | url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1895, after a protracted decision-making process, the [[Adams Power Plant|Adams No. 1 generating station]] at [[Niagara Falls]] began transmitting three-phase alternating current power to Buffalo at 11 kV. Following completion of the Niagara Falls project, new power systems increasingly chose [[alternating current]] as opposed to [[direct current]] for electrical transmission.<ref>{{ cite web | url=http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/adams.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080105063606/http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/adams.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 5, 2008 | title=Adams Hydroelectric Generating Plant, 1895 | publisher=IEEE | access-date=2008-05-25 }}</ref>

The generation of electricity was regarded as particularly important following the [[October revolutionRevolution|Bolshevik seizure of power]]. [[Lenin]] stated "Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country."<ref>{{cite book|last=Vladimir|first=Lenin|title=Our Foreign and Domestic Position and Party Tasks|year=1920|location=Moscow|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/nov/21.htm|quote=Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country, since industry cannot be developed without electrification.}}</ref> He was subsequently featured on many Soviet posters, stamps etc. presenting this view. The [[GOELRO plan]] was initiated in 1920 as the first Bolshevik experiment in industrial planning and in which Lenin became personally involved. [[Gleb Krzhizhanovsky]] was another key figure involved, having been involved in the construction of a power station in [[Moscow]] in 1910. He had also known Lenin since 1897 when they were both in the St. Petersburg chapter of the ''Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class''.

In both the UK and the US, professional societies had long existed for civil and mechanical engineers. The [[Institution of Electrical Engineers|IEE]] (IEE) was founded in the UK in 1871, and the [[AIEE]] in the United States in 1884. These societies contributed to the exchange of electrical knowledge and the development of electrical engineering education.
On an international level, the [[International Electrotechnical Commission]] (IEC), which was founded in 1906, prepares standards for power engineering, with 20,000 electrotechnical experts from 172 countries developing global specifications based on consensus.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050308100205/http://www.ieee.org/portal/site/pes IEEE Power Engineering Society]

[[Category:Mechanical engineering|P]]