It's the Path 4, West Coast intertie line. Washington state to Reseda CA. 3.5 gigawatts capacity. Direct current system. Not A.C.
It's 1 megavolts 1,000,000 volts direct current. The 10 meter distance, length of the insulators, is a clue.
The two wires are the same polarity.
in a ditch adjacent to the towers is the negative pathway. It is filled with conductive media. I was invited to a field survey in Ely Nevada that discussed basic soil composition and conductance to minimize earth eddy currents. Eastern Nevada was chosen over the alternatives because of that reason. I was a guest of Siemens.
Software controlled conversion and reversion of DC. Components are giga size with appropriate cooling air temperatures, moisture and contaminate containment.
An interesting study. The science behind it is in another dimension. This is PhD territory beyond my capabilities when I attended and now outside my area of interest. Power generation and storage is quite enough for me these days :)
Software controlled rectification using ultra low forward voltage drop interests me. As does artificial EMP and solar EMP. If alternator rectification involved .002 vf you cannot imagine the advantages. And it implies direct interface with camping and RV'ing. :)
