CHINA — Hitachi ABB Power Grids is to provide the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) with UHVDC technology solutions for one of China’s most important west-to-east clean energy transfer projects: the Baihetan-Jiangsu UHVDC link.

The order includes UHVDC classic valves, wall bushings, converter transformers, DC breakers, high-voltage live tank and dead tank breakers to help enhance the safety, reliability and efficiency of the power network.

The Baihetan-Jiangsu UHVDC link will transmit up to 8 GW of electricity over more than 1,242 miles to the Jiangsu province, which has a growing population of 80 million and is China’s second-largest provincial economy.

In 2020 SGCC awarded Hitachi ABB Power Grids with a similar order for three UHVDC links in China. The two companies have worked closely together for around 30 years on most of China’s HVDC and UHVDC projects. 

The link is the world’s first hybrid UHVDC system. It uses a combination of UHVDC Classic – key for transferring large amounts of power over very long distances with low power losses – and voltage source converter-based HVDC, which stabilizes the AC grid at the receiving end of the link. Hitachi ABB Power Grids has previously deployed hybrid HVDC at the 500 kV level, but it has never been implemented at 800 kV. 

The Baihetan hydropower project will be the second largest in the world and is an important contributor to China’s goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2060, supplying clean energy equivalent to that generated by burning almost 20 million tons of coal per year. 

Source: Hitachi ABB Power Grids