HVDC heritage

The world's first DC-grid with HVDC Light technology will help to integrate massive amounts of renewable power in the heavily populated area around Beijing.

Hitachi Energy develops complete system solution for 1,100 kV ultrahigh voltage direct current (UHVDC) technology and enhances power transfer capacity to 10,000 MW and extends distance to over 3,000 km.

Hitachi Energy launches the worlds first Hybrid HVDC breaker, enabling the vision of DC-grids to be realized.

Hitachi Energy links the Xiangjiaba hydropower plant in southwest China to Shanghai using UHVDC (ultrahigh voltage direct current) at a capacity of ±800 kV (kilovolts) and 7,000 MW (megawatts) of power over a distance of about 2,000 km (kilometers).

One of the world’s most remote offshore wind farms is connected to the German grid by an HVDC Light transmission system. The 200 km long connection reduces carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 1.5 million tons per year and supports wind power development.

NorNed, the longest submarine HVDC cable in the world at 580 km, links the power networks of Norway and the Netherlands with a transmission capacity of 700 MW.

Hitachi Energy delivers electricity through a DC (direct current) link originating 70 km away on land to a gas platform in the North Sea, helping avoid annual emissions of 230,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 230 tons of nitrogen oxide.

Hitachi Energy links the AC (alternating current) networks of South Australia and Victoria with the world’s longest underground transmission, a 177 km HVDC Light cable with a capacity of 220 MW. Hitachi Energy also linked Conneticut and Long Island with the world’s first extruded HVDC submarine transmission, a 40 km HVDC Light cable with a power rating of 330 MW.

The first HVDC Light test connection between Hällsjön and Grängesberg in central Sweden marked the start of a completely new power transmission technology - underground and underwater, also over long distances.

The Itaipu link brings hydropower to Sao Paulo, the largest city in the Southern hemisphere, via the world’s first 600 kV HVDC transmission.

Thyristor valves were used for the first time in a commercial HVDC transmission project.

In the 1960s, Hitachi ABB Power Grids built several HVDC transmissions systems with converters based on mercury-arc valve technology, for example the Konti-Skan link, the first interconnection between Sweden and the western grid in Denmark.

ASEA installs the world’s first HVDC transmission line, providing 20 MW, 100 kV to the Isle of Gotland over a distance of 96 km.

Dr. Uno Lamm begins R&D activities for HVDC one year after he joined ASEA in Ludvika, Sweden.