ABB wins $740 Million in HVDC Transmission System Orders

ABB has teamed up with India's national electricity grid operator Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID) in a mega project worth over $640 million for ABB to deliver a transmission link that will have the capacity to bring reliable electricity to more than 80 million people. The Raigarh-Pugalur 800kV ultra-high-voltage direct current (UHVDC) system will connect Raigarh in Central India to Pugalur in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

In addition, ABB has won an order worth more than $100 million from the U.S. utility Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), to modernize the existing Sylmar HVDC (high-voltage direct current) converter station in California. While the POWERGIRD contract represents a major step forward for the electrification of India, the Sylmar station is a critical part of a highly-important historic electricity link between the Pacific Northwest and southern California commissioned in 1970.

The 1,830km Raigarh-Pugalur link will be among the longest in the world. With a capacity of 6,000MW – the equivalent of more than six large power plants – it will be enough to meet the electricity needs of over 80 million people in India. The two-way link will integrate thermal and wind energy for transmission of power to high consumption centers located thousands of kilometers away, supporting electricity demands in the south, when wind strength is low, and transmitting clean energy to the north, when there is excess wind power.

“ABB is honored to partner with POWERGRID for this smart long distance transmission project,” said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “Delivering reliable electricity to India’s energy demand centers is a top priority for the Indian government to support the country’s impressive growth momentum. ABB is strongly committed to India for more than a century and with this new long distance transmission link, we are delivering the benefits from the Energy Revolution to the country building on the strength of our strong local manufacturing footprint. With our state-of-the-art UHVDC technology, we enable the balancing of renewable and conventional electricity supply over long distances in a smart and reliable way.”

“As part of our Next Level Strategy, we are committed to delivering cutting-edge technologies like HVDC to integrate renewables and transmit power reliably and efficiently, providing vital access to electricity and making a real difference to people’s lives,” said Claudio Facchin, President of ABB’s Power Grids division. ”We will leverage our extensive local manufacturing and engineering base in India and proven partnership with our consortium partner BHEL for the execution of this prestigious project.”

The Sylmar converter station, located to the north of Los Angeles, is the southern station of the Pacific Intertie, a 1,360km HVDC link that connects to the Celilo converter station near the Columbia River, Oregon. The Pacific Intertie transmits electricity from the Pacific Northwest to as many as three million households in the greater Los Angeles area. Normally, the power flow is from north to south, but during the winter, the north consumes significant quantities of power for heating while the south requires less, and the power flow is reversed. The Pacific Intertie allows power to flow between the Northwest and Southern California, helping to balance supply with demand.

“The Pacific Intertie was the first major HVDC link to be installed in the US and has been providing power to millions in the U.S. for nearly five decades”, said Claudio Facchin, President of ABB’s Power Grids division. ”We are delighted to return to this pioneering project. After the success of Celilo, the Sylmar upgrade will help to secure power supplies while providing greater efficiency and reliability with an exceptional level of control. ABB is a global leader in HVDC and this project reiterates our commitment to service and lifetime support, a key element of our Next Level Strategy.”

Digitalization will be a key feature in the upgrade, as the latest version of ABB’s most advanced digital MACH control and protection system will be installed. As announced previously, Celilo, the northern converter station of the link, was the first installation in the world to benefit from an upgrade to this latest control system. Other key components of the Sylmar station upgrade are AC and DC filters, shunt reactors, as well as measurement and auxiliary equipment.

The digital MACH system monitors, controls and protects the sophisticated hardware in the station, managing thousands of operations to ensure the highest possible reliability. It also helps to protect the transmission link from unexpected disruptions, such as lightning strikes. MACH acts like the brain of the HVDC link, designed to run around the clock for decades. Incorporating advanced fault registration and remote control functions, ABB’s MACH system is the world's most extensively deployed control solution for HVDC and FACTS (Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems) installations, with over 1,100 such systems in operation throughout the world.

Since being awarded the contract to help build the Pacific Intertie, in 1965, ABB has had a long lasting relationship with the link, delivering multiple performance and life extending upgrades over the 46 years the link has been in operation. This is ABB’s sixth order to work on the Pacific Intertie.