TD World reports that the world’s longest transmission line, a 2,400 km line from Puerto Velho to Sao Paulo in Brazil, was commissioned in August.
Technology supplier ABB announced that it had successfully commissioned the high voltage direct current (HVDC) converter stations to the Rio Madeira HVDC link August 27 and delivered the project to its owner, international energy company Abengoa.
The approximately 1,500 mile (2,400 kilometers), 3150 MW power connection is the longest transmission link in the world, and will bring electricity from two hydropower plants in the northwest of the country to São Paulo, Brazil’s main economic center. ABB announced a price of US$540 million for the project when it won the contract in 2009.
The two lines represent the fourth and fifth transmission links using HVDC technology delivered by ABB in Brazil, following links from the Itaipu mega-hydro project, delivered in 1984 and 1987, and the two interconnections between Brazil and Argentina, delivered in 1999 and 2002.
Apart from the two converter stations, ABB has also delivered an 800 MW HVDC back-to-back station that transmits power to the surrounding AC network in the northwest of Brazil.