Editing Power engineering (section)

==Twentieth century==
===Power engineering and Bolshevism===
[[File:Klutsis (1929) Soviet Power plus electrification.png|thumb|right|1929 poster by [[Gustav Klutsis]]]]
The generation of electricity was regarded as particularly important following the [[October Revolution|Bolshevik seizure of power]]. [[Lenin]] stated "Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country."<ref>{{cite book|last=Vladimir|first=Lenin|title=Our Foreign and Domestic Position and Party Tasks|year=1920|location=Moscow|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/nov/21.htm|quote=Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country, since industry cannot be developed without electrification.}}</ref> He was subsequently featured on many Soviet posters, stamps etc. presenting this view. The [[GOELRO plan]] was initiated in 1920 as the first Bolshevik experiment in industrial planning and in which Lenin became personally involved. [[Gleb Krzhizhanovsky]] was another key figure involved, having been involved in the construction of a power station in [[Moscow]] in 1910. He had also known Lenin since 1897 when they were both in the St. Petersburg chapter of the ''Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class''.

===Power engineering in the USA===
In 1936 the first commercial [[high-voltage direct current]] (HVDC) line using [[mercury-arc valve]]s was built between [[Schenectady, New York|Schenectady]] and [[Mechanicville, New York]]. HVDC had previously been achieved by installing direct current generators in series (a system known as the [[Thury system]]) although this suffered from serious reliability issues.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ieee.org/organizations/pes/public/2005/may/peshistory.html | title=A Novel but Short-Lived Power Distribution System | date=2005-05-01 | publisher=IEEE | access-date=2008-05-25 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524013821/http://www.ieee.org/organizations/pes/public/2005/may/peshistory.html | archive-date=2011-05-24 }}</ref> In 1957 [[Siemens]] demonstrated the first solid-state rectifier (solid-state rectifiers are now the standard for HVDC systems) however it was not until the early 1970s that this technology was used in commercial power systems.<ref>{{cite news | author=Gene Wolf | title=Electricity Through the Ages | url=http://tdworld.com/mag/power_electricity_ages/ | work=Transmission & Distribution World | date=2000-12-01 }}</ref> In 1959 Westinghouse demonstrated the first [[circuit breaker]] that used [[sulfur hexafluoride|SF<sub>6</sub>]] as the interrupting medium.<ref>{{cite news | author=John Tyner, Rick Bush and Mike Eby | title=A Fifty-Year Retrospective | url=http://tdworld.com/mag/power_fiftyyear_retrospective/ | work=Transmission & Distribution World | date=1999-11-01 }}</ref> SF<sub>6</sub> is a far superior [[dielectric]] to air and, in recent times, its use has been extended to produce far more compact switching equipment (known as [[switchgear]]) and [[transformer]]s.<ref>{{ cite web | url=http://www.abb.com/product/us/9AAC710047.aspx | publisher=ABB | title=Gas Insulated Switchgear | access-date=2008-05-25 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.sayedsaad.com/Transformer/SF6_Transformer/sf6_transformer_main.htm | title=SF6 Transformer | first=Sayed | last=Amin | access-date=2008-05-25 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080616053117/http://www.sayedsaad.com/Transformer/SF6_Transformer/sf6_transformer_main.htm | archive-date=2008-06-16 | url-status=dead }}</ref> Many important developments also came from extending innovations in the [[Information and communications technology|ICT]] field to the power engineering field. For example, the development of computers meant [[load flow study|load flow studies]] could be run more efficiently allowing for much better planning of power systems. Advances in information technology and telecommunication also allowed for much better remote control of the power system's switchgear and generators.