Power/energy progress report: A pastiche of developments promises near and long-term applications

The world's most northerly generating station is operating in the Arctic; in warmer climes, large turbine-generators and reversible generator/motors intended for pumped storage are on line. New solid-state field-excitation systems for large generators are being implemented successfully and equipment designed to prevent subsynchronous resonance is performing well. In the laboratory, research continues on generators with superconducting field windings, on ultrahigh-voltage (UHV) transmission, and on “bundled circuits” for 345-kV transmission systems. And high-voltage dc (HVDC) has taken a major step forward in the United States, sparked by the energizing of the first long-distance system employing fully solid-state conversion.