Brian,

It sounds great. I know from personal experience that it's much better to develop
a new technology quietly and test it before everybody develops high expectations.
If you don't manage the management, they will give you zero credit
for the idea, and a lot of grief for slow deployment.

I see the usefulness of this technology in many places where we trade power.

Is it OK to consult one my associates (Martin Lin) and  ask him for his
opinion? He knows infinitely more about transmission than I do.

A lunch / dinner at a Sardinian restaurant would be great.
I spent a summer in Sardinia in 1970.

Vince

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Mihura, Brian  
Sent:	Thursday, August 16, 2001 8:17 AM
To:	Kaminski, Vince J
Subject:	Would anyone be interested?....

Greetings Vince!
	During the brief idle moments we have here in the lab, I have been pondering yet another possible project.  We have built sensor boards and written programs to calculate the current flow along High Voltage Direct Current lines, the type that form the Western Inter-tie.    There are six of these lines to the west, i.e. to the WSCC  - four between WSCC and MAPP and two between WSCC and SPP.  It would seem to me to be valuable to know when there there power supply differences between these NERC regions and when power was flowing between them.  (In this case, directionality is no problem.  For once there is actually something flowing!)  Of course if this is useful, the project could expand to other inter-regional zones.  HVDC lines exist in the northeast between the large Canadian hydro projects and the metropolitan cities in New England.  Globally, there are several large grids being formed - one in Scandinavia, one in North Africa, an East Russian/Chinese system and a Russian/Korean/Japanese system.  Naturally these have to connect internally with DC lines as there are power frequency, power reliability and power control differences between each of the generating countries.
	You are the first person that I have told about this.  I didn't want to get anyone, especially my immediate supervisors, excited about a technology that I wasn't ready to provide.  I know that once I say that we could do it, the powers that be will want it NOW.  If you think that there is a market for this imformation I'll sneak out some weekend and collect a bit of data.  The nearest HVDC inter-tie is just north of Dallas so testing it would only take a day or two.  I am currently juggling two running chainsaws, a rabid dog and three vial of hepatitis so one more item in the mix won't make much of a difference at this point.  If no one needs to info, I'll just put the hardware and software on the shelf.

p.s.  Gina and I would like to take you out to lunch or dinner soon to a Sardinian restaurant.  Let us know when you would be free.  ( Your wife is invited, of course!)