ABB is currently spotlighting one of its new products developed in recent years: HVDC Light. This is a design enhancement of the traditional HVDC (high voltage direct current) transmission technology. The company’s main priority in the area of offshore wind generation has been creating appropriate solutions for the transmission of the power to the mainland and feeding it into the existing high voltage grid. Technical studies have shown that traditional three-phase current technology reaches its limits in this situation.
The result of this development process is an entirely new generation of HVDC transmission equipment, which has eliminated certain characteristics of traditional HVDC transmission systems and is branded as HVDC Light. The new technology scores in terms of the following characteristics: (relatively) small and compact installations, low harmonic loads, complete decoupling of the two connected networks to deal with malfunctions or failure of one network, no reactive-power problems etc. At present, HVDC Light can be supplied up to a unit output of 500MW. This power can be transported over large distances with low losses using just one two-pole DC cable.
