I was watching a YT video recently where they said something along the lines of “AC current is too inefficient for long distance power transmission, so xyz project needs DC power” and then moved on. I (from my vague memories 20 years ago of school) thought that AC had less loss and inefficiencies. What am I missing/what did I tune out in school?
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It depends on the situation. DC doesn’t experience as much voltage drop over very long distances, but it’s more expensive to transmit.
AC is very cheap and easy to transmit over moderately long distances, but unlike DC, it does experience significant voltage drop along the way. Power companies boost the voltage at various points to compensate for this, so despite the tradeoff, AC still ends up being far more cost effective for power grids.
However, if one needs to transmit power over very long distances (over 1,000km), DC actually overtakes AC in terms of economics and efficiency. In those applications, DC is the winner.
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