EDITORIAL
Here ’ s a wonderful story :
“ Tradition is what you resort to when you don ’ t have the time or money to do it right .”
Kurt Herbert Alder
A girl watches her mother preparing a turkey dinner and is surprised to see that before placing it inside the pan for cooking , the mother cuts off a section at the end and throws it out . Curious , she asks why and her mother replies , ‘ because that ’ s how my mother always cooked a turkey ’.
Well , the next time she meets her grandmother , the young girl asks ‘ grandma , why did you always cut off the end of the turkey before cooking it ?’ To which the grandmother answers : ‘ because that ’ s what I saw my mother do just before cooking it ’.
Don ’ t Be Restricted by Tradition
Now , it just so happens that the girl ’ s great grandmother is still alive . So she approaches the old woman and asks why she regularly cut off the end of the turkey before cooking it . The great grandmother makes a determined effort to concentrate before finally replying , ‘ Oh yes ! I remember . The tiny pan I had back then was never big enough to hold the darned bird .”
Tradition can be wonderful . From the human perspective , perhaps we should always keep traditions alive since they embody our culture and define us … where we come from .
But does tradition really deserve to play a role in the world of power engineering ?
One would think not . Tradition here can be , as English author Somerset Maugham once penned , ‘ a jailer rather than a guide ’. Yet the fact is that whenever a new line or substation project is being planned , tradition is often a major if not the dominant consideration . ( INMR reported on one interesting exception in our last issue . Another exception would be UHV , where there ’ s still no tradition yet to fall back on . Indeed , perhaps that ’ s why one finds such novel designs being proposed at these elevated voltages , as seen for example in this issue ’ s article about the 1200 kV Bina test station ).
In this our centenary issue , Columnist Jon Woodworth decides to take on one of the power delivery industry ’ s traditional ‘ sacred cows ’ – the ubiquitous ground wire found on overhead transmission lines . Indeed , he feels that , given their drawbacks , engineers should now start looking seriously at what he proposes as superior alternatives .
Now , it ’ s always said that the power engineering field is a conservative one and indeed must always be so . One cannot experiment with something so vital to our security and well being as electrical power .
But being cautious must not keep engineers from constantly advancing their field . Must not make them afraid to innovate . Must not keep them from leaping over past traditions by applying proven new technologies .
Otherwise , we ’ ll be forever cutting off the ends of turkeys .
Marvin L . Zimmerman mzimmerman @ inmr . com
6 20
YEARS
Q2 2013