American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC, Westborough, MA), a global supplier of superconductor products and power electronic converters to the electric power industry, and GE Industrial Systems, a business of the General Electric Co., announced the sale of two of AMSC's D-VAR™ dynamic voltage compensation systems to Rayburn Country Electric Cooperative (Rockwall, TX). The utility will use the AMSC and GE products to improve power reliability to consumers and business customers.
The Rayburn County utility will use a pair of D-VAR systems to mitigate voltage stability problems on a 138kV transmission grid serving 26,000 Rayburn customers. GE also will provide engineering, installation, capacitors and other system components for the turnkey solution. The units are expected to be in operation by June 1, 2003. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.
"Electrical demand has been increasing throughout our region at six percent per year," said John Kirkland, president of the Rayburn Country Electric Cooperative. "This load growth has created the potential for widespread low voltage and voltage collapse following various transmission outage events. Rayburn investigated several options to solve the voltage problem, including adding generation and building new transmission lines or upgrading existing transmission lines. The D-VAR technology allows us to avoid these problems and delay the need for these expensive alternative solutions."
