ABB has won orders worth around $75 million from Hydro-Québec, the utility in eastern Canada, and National Grid, the utility in New England, USA, to refurbish three high-voltage direct current (HVDC) converter stations.
The multi-terminal HVDC link between Québec and New England was the world’s first such link to be put into service between 1990 and 1992. ABB will now replace the 20-year-old control and protection systems with the newest modular advanced control systems (MACH) for HVDC equipment.
The link has a total transfer capacity of 2,000 MW of power and spans a distance of 1,500 km from the La Grande II hydroelectric generating complex near James Bay in eastern Canada, via Nicolet, a substation located on the south shore of the St-Lawrence river, down to Sandy Pond, near Boston, Massachusetts in the US.
“ABB pioneered HVDC technology and we continue to lead the way through innovation,” said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “This project reinforces ABB’s focus and commitment to supporting customers throughout the lifecycle of the products and systems it delivers. It also underlines the company’s emphasis on growing its service business.”
The project scope also includes refurbishment of two cable transition stations and a control and protection system replica for a test center in Canada. The stations are scheduled to go in operation in stages and will be completed by 2016.
The MACH system is the world's most extensively deployed control solution for HVDC and Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems (FACTS) installations, with over 1,100 such systems in operation throughout the world.
