First HVDC Transmission Projects Beginning Globally

April 29th, 2011 by Susan Kraemer

Finally. We are starting to get the high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system we need to shift massive amounts of wind power from all those empty states where all the wind is, to all the full ones where all the people are. Green Car Congress reports that Siemens is starting to build the much-needed grid that doing that will take.

The world has mostly used alternating current (AC) for above-ground cross-country transmission ever since the dawn of the electrical age, only because Thomas Edison – who advocated for DC – was not able to out-argue Nicola Tesla, who favored AC. But AC has high losses over distances, and would lose even more in cables underground or under water, which is where we need them, for example for off-shore wind.

DC, by contrast loses up to 40% less in transmission, so using DC transmission, wind farms can be spread over large geographic areas to produce a more even supply of power (as it’s always blowing somewhere). Since distance transmission is key to desert solar and lonely-state wind, DC is better for renewables.

In 2010, Siemens had $41.6 billion in sales of its high voltage DC systems.

Beginning in 2013, its new HVDC PLUS technology will transmit 2,000 MW as direct current underground connecting the Spanish grid with that of France.

A 1,000-MW HVDC cable was recently put into operation along a 260-kilometer underwater line between the Netherlands and the UK.

Desertec (Half a Trillion Dollars to Build Huge Desertec Plan) the ambitious plan to ship power from the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East to Europe will definitely need HVDC.

But Siemens is not only building renewable-friendly transmission in the EU. The company has built HVDC here too, and right in my neck of the woods, the San Francisco Bay Area: “Transbay, likewise erected by Siemens Energy, transmits 400 MW of electrical output at a transmission voltage of ±200 kV with low losses and high energy efficiency via an 88-kilometer marine cable link from Pittsburg, California, to San Francisco.”

There are wind farms in Pittsburg, and people in San Francisco.

UK-Netherlands power cable begins transmission (guardian.co.uk)
Why Japan’s Fragmented Grid Can’t Cope (spectrum.ieee.org)

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Tags: Alternating current, High-voltage direct current, HVDC, Siemens

About the Author

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.

muchos huevos

This sounds great!!! anything that would help save money by NOT buying
oil from the haters is a good idea.
Anonymous

Here’s a very good article on the dual 1,000MW HVDC transmission lines being installed underground between Spain and France. Good details on the equipment being used.

This is one stage of integrating Europe and Northern Africa into one large grid. Spain has excellent wind and solar resources and has done a very good job of installing wind turbines and solar panels. This new line will let Spain sell some of their clean power into the rest of Europe, letting Europe cut back on their use of fossil fuels.

It’s working….
Susan Kraemer

woops, shoulda googled which was the AC advocate, rather than rely on memory: have fixed
Anonymous

I submit to what’s been said before. Tesla invented the AC, not Edison. In fact, Edison actually wanted to boycott Tesla’s inventions by electrocuting animals in public places using AC current, and “proving” it’s dangerous. You should rectify the info…
Agostini

To confirm, Tesla advocated AC. Simply google ” Tesla advocated ” and the results will reveal the truth.
Desertec is very impressive. I love having positive stories to share with others about the environment, its future and me living in it.
Anonymous

It was Edison who started with DC and Tesla who invented AC and licensed it to Westinghouse.

AC does NOT have huge losses over distance, that’s why it is used. One of the main advantages of AC is that it’s easier to step up and down in voltage using relatively low tech transformers. Long distance AC lines run as high as 500kV (that’s 1/2 a million volts) and can easily be stepped down to residential voltages. The higher the voltage the lower the current in the wires and as a result the lower the line losses.

You can’t use transformers to step up/down with DC so creating the high voltages necessary for long distance transmission and stepping it down for local use is simply much more expensive. Up until now they’ve only been used for underwater systems where AC isn’t suitable.
- Anonymous
  
  I’m afraid you’ve got a whole bunch of stuff wrong.
  
  The Edison/DC and Tesla/AC is correct. But from there on…
  
  DC is less lossy over longer distances. There is a small loss at each end (~0.75%) in the conversion process so over shorter distances AC is used.
  
  Early HVDC systems used mercury arc rectifiers, which were unreliable. Today almost all HVDC systems use thyristor valves.
  
  The world is kind of full of HVDC transmission lines. The oldest still operating were built in the 1960s.
  
  In the US we’ve got the Pacific Intertie which runs between the Pacific Northwest and SoCal, the Intermountain Intertie between Utah and SoCal, the Neptune between Long Island and New Jersey, ….
  
  Here’s a list of HVDC lines.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HVDC_projects
  
  Here’s a pretty thorough piece on HVDC transmission…
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current
Gerrywolff65

No, Edison favoured a low-voltage DC system but Tesla won the day by showing the advantages of a high-voltage AC system. HVDC was a later development with advantages over very long distances and for transmission under water and under ground.
http://valdodge.com/ Val Dodge

I think it was Tesla who advocated for AC, and Edison for DC, not the other way around.