UHVDC

UHVDC

Hey Everyone,

                        In today's topic, we are going to explore an Engineering marvel we have achieved which is Ultra High Voltage Direct Current transmission and distribution this assures the possibility that connecting grids across continents is not a dream.

In today's world population is expanding very rapidly and people are living in almost every part of the world as this being the case the electricity requirement is also more and the technology should ensure providing electricity to all parts of the world. The Urban cities and centers are developing very far away from the power sources so we need something different to transmit power to them efficiently with minimum losses as possible and also with less cost so HVDC(High Voltage Direct Current) transmission system was invented but now there is a greater need than HVDC and we have UHVDC.

What is UHVDC?

Any Voltage of 800KV and higher is termed as UHVDC.

UHVDC transformer

The world's first UHVDC power link of 1100KV is introduced by ABB and it can be laid across 3000Km(transmission distance). The capacity is almost 12000MW and the transmission capacity is increased by 50% compared to HVDC. The first country to adopt UHVDC was China in 2010 when they laid their 800KV DC transmission line and 1100KV DC transmission was also laid first in China in 2015.

How China laid their first UHVDC link?

The state grid corporation of China laid their first 800KV DC transmission in 2010. This is a 2000Km long power line with a capacity of 6400MW generated by a Hydrocarbon power plant in Xiangjiaba and supplied to Shangai.

The total of 24 Transformers are used with single phase, 2 winding units on both the sending and receiving side and the AC to DC converters are built as ±800KV with eight series-connected six pulse converters. The transformers are connected to the uppermost bridge and the lowermost bridge is built for the highest DC potential. The transformers are placed inside the converters.

The function of the converter transformer is to adjust the line voltage in AC side to UHVDC transmission voltage.

India to the UHVDC race

India has teamed with ABB to lay the costliest(640 million $) and longest grid(1830km) from Raighar in Central India to Pugalur in Tamilnadu with the capacity of 6000MW and it is estimated to bring power to 8 crore people. This two-way link will integrate Thermal and Wind for transmission of power to thousands of Km away to the consumption centres supporting electricity demands in the south when wind strength is low and supplying clean energy to the north when wind power is excess.


The project was started by ABB along with BHEL(Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited) in 2016 and is expected to be completed in 2019.

The UHVDC links aims at connecting renewable, cleaner and efficient generating plants to high demand load centres over a very long distance reducing the need to develop infrastructure for transportation of coal, oil, gas. This also helps in preventing damage to the environment and by increasing the capacity and efficiency of grid systems the supply chain would be stable and reliable. Integrating grids into Industrial Internet of things enables the operator to further improve their performance.

Fact Flash:

Siemens has developed a 1100KV UHVDC transformer from scratch and this transformer weighs almost 909 metric tons and is 37m long 14m high and 12m wide and has an efficiency of 99% of rated power. The valve bushings from where the current flows from transformers to the valves are 19m long(approx).

Siemens transformer

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