Hydro-Quebec's 735,000 volt electric power transmission system was the first in the world to be designed, built and operated at an alternating-current voltage above 700 kV. This development extended the limits of long-distance transmission of electrical energy. On 29 November 1965 the first 735 kV line was inaugurated. Power was transmitted from the Manicouagan-Outardes hydro-electric generating complex to Montreal, a distance of 600 km.
Hydropower
![First 735 kV AC Transmission System](/sites/default/files/styles/landmark_node_/public/first_700kv_ac_transmission_line.jpg?itok=MgQK5pfV)
![Michigan-Lake Superior Power Hydroelectric Plant](/sites/default/files/styles/landmark_node_/public/landmarks/images/Lake_superior.jpg?itok=q4tLTNYt)
This low-head operating plant is representative of nineteenth-century hydropower-plant practice using many small turbines in contrast to twentieth-century use of few large turbines and generators. Its 40,000 horsepower capacity made it the largest in the country using turbines of American design (McCormick-Francis). The contemporary and larger Niagara installation used turbines of French design (Fourneyron). The entrepreneur of this plant was Francis Clergue, a lawyer, who employed as his chief engineer Hans A.E. von Schon, a German immigrant who had served with the U.S.
Innovations
![Michigan-Lake Superior Power Hydroelectric Plant](/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/landmarks/images/Lake_superior.jpg?itok=Ij20t9Fs)
This low-head operating plant is representative of nineteenth-century hydropower-plant practice using many small turbines in contrast to twentieth-century use of few large turbines and generators. Its 40,000 horsepower capacity made it the largest in the country using turbines of American design…
Read More![First 735 kV AC Transmission System](/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/first_700kv_ac_transmission_line.jpg?itok=7RVlBA50)
Hydro-Quebec's 735,000 volt electric power transmission system was the first in the world to be designed, built and operated at an alternating-current voltage above 700 kV. This development extended the limits of long-distance transmission of electrical energy. On 29 November 1965 the first 735…
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