CTC Global: Making a Smart Grid Smarter

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Dave Bryant, Director Technology, CTC GlobalDave Bryant, Director Technology The U.S. Department of Energy defines Smart Grid as “an electrical grid that uses computers and other technology to gather and act on information, such as information about the behaviors of suppliers and consumers, in an automated fashion to improve the efficiency, reliability, economics, and sustainability of the production and distribution of electricity.”

When I first read this, my big takeaway was Information Technology (IT). When I took another look, reading it more carefully, I caught the goal – not the method. The goal being “to improve the efficiency, reliability, economics, and sustainability of the production and distribution of electricity.”

Just so you know, our company, CTC Global, manufactures a hybrid carbon fiber core that is used to manufacture “bare overhead conductors” or powerline wires. The product is known as ACCC® Conductor and has been deployed to nearly 1,000 projects in 60 countries to “improve the efficiency, capacity, reliability and resilience of the world’s electric power grid. Sound familiar?

In the early days of electric power delivery, copper wires were used to transport electrons to customers. During World War I, copper supplies were diverted to the war effort so aluminum wires were used instead. Aluminum is a good conductor, but not very strong, so manufacturers inserted steel wires in the middle of the aluminum wires to give the overall ‘conductor’ more strength.
This hasn’t changed much in over 100 years - until CTC Global entered the business.

CTC Global’s ACCC® Conductor is helping deliver more power, more efficiently and is delivering exactly what the Department of Energy asked for in their Smart Grid criteria

One of the limiting aspects of overhead conductors is the fact that they tend to sag when carrying lots of power. This is because the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the steel core wires causes them to elongate and sag as they get hot. Wires get hot due to the electrical resistance of the materials they are made with and this results in power line electrical losses. In other words, if the conductor is carrying 1,000 amps of power maybe only 950 or so actually get delivered as the rest of the energy is converted to heat and essentially wasted.

CTC Global’s ACCC Conductor uses a high-strength, light-weight carbon fiber core with a very low coefficient of thermal expansion. This prevents the wires from sagging under heavy electrical load conditions which allows it to carry about twice the current of a conventional steel reinforced conductor of the same diameter and weight.
Another major benefit is the fact that the ACCC Conductor’s light-weight core allows it to use nearly 30 percent more conductive aluminum without a weight penalty. The added aluminum content serves to reduce electrical resistance ANDline losses.

This is Where it Gets Interesting:

Reduced line losses serves to reduce fuel consumption and associated CO2 (and other) emissions. This can not only reduce the cost of delivered power, it can also help the environment in a big way. Additionally, and quite remarkably, it can save a whole lot of water! Did you know that 40% of all fresh water consumed in the U.S. is used to produce steam that runs power plant generators? In fact, “thermal” power plants (coal, natural gas, nuclear and others) use anywhere from 10,000 to 60,000 gallons of water per megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity produced. A 300 MW power plant running at full capacity for one year, for instance, would produce 2,628,000 MWh of electricity. At the very low end, they would use over 26 billion gallons of water – possibly six times more.

“CTC Global’s ACCC® Conductor is helping deliver more power, more efficiently and is delivering exactly what the Department of Energy asked for in their Smart Grid criteria. We’ll talk about our embedded fiber optics in another article. For now, stay well and prosper,” informs Dave Bryant, the Director Technology at CTC Global Corporation.
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Top 10 Smart Grid Solution Companies - 2020

Company
CTC Global

Headquarters
Irvine, CA

Management
Dave Bryant, Director Technology

Description
CTC Global’s ACCC Conductor uses a high-strength, light-weight carbon fiber core with a very low coefficient of thermal expansion. This prevents the wires from sagging under heavy electrical load conditions which allows it to carry about twice the current of a conventional steel reinforced conductor of the same diameter and weight. Another major benefit is the fact that the ACCC Conductor’s light-weight core allows it to use nearly 30 percent more conductive aluminum without a weight penalty. The added aluminum content serves to reduce electrical resistance ANDline losses