A large amount of high-conductivity copper needs to be consumed in power transmission, which is mainly used for power wires and cables, bus bars, transformers, switches, plug-in components, and connectors.
In the process of wire and cable power transmission, electrical energy is wasted in vain due to resistance heating. From the perspective of energy saving and economy, the world is currently promoting the ""best cable cross section"" standard. The popular standard in the past, simply from the perspective of reducing the investment in one installation, in order to minimize the cross-section of the cable, to determine the minimum allowable size of the cable in order to avoid dangerous overheating at the rated current required by the design. Cable laid according to this standard, although the installation cost is low; but in the long-term use process, the resistance energy consumption is relatively large. The ""Best Cable Cross Section"" standard takes into account the two factors of one-time installation cost and power consumption, and appropriately enlarges the cable size to achieve the purpose of energy saving and the best comprehensive economic benefits. According to the new standard, the cable cross-section is often more than doubled than the old standard, and the energy saving effect of about 50% can be obtained.
In the past period of time in my country, due to the short supply of steel, considering that the proportion of aluminum is only 30% of copper, measures have been taken to replace copper with aluminum in overhead high-voltage transmission lines that hope to reduce weight. Underground cables. In this case, compared with copper, aluminum has the disadvantages of poor conductivity and larger cable size, which pales in comparison.
For the same reason, it is also a wise choice to replace the old aluminum winding transformer with an energy-saving and efficient copper winding transformer.