ABB selected for world’s longest power transmission link

Zurich, Switzerland-based ABB (NYSE:ABB) said today it received $540 million in orders from engineering and process management company Abengoa to deliver technology for the world’s longest power transmission link to be constructed in Brazil.

ABB provides power and automation technologies to utility and industry customers to improve performance, while lowering environmental impact. ABB said the power highway is expected to link two new hydropower plants in the northwest region of the country with Brazil's largest city, São Paulo, some 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles). Power is planned be transmitted at high voltage (600 kilovolts) to minimize transmission losses.

Under the agreement, ABB is anticipated to provide two 3,150 megawatt high-voltage direct current (HVDC) converter stations, and an 800-MW HVDC back-to-back station to transmit power to São Paulo and the alternating current network in Brazil's northwest region. The stations are scheduled for 2012 completion.

“HVDC technology is ideally suited for the efficient transmission of renewable energy generated in remote areas, such as hydropower,” said Peter Leupp, head of ABB’s power systems division, in a news release.

ABB said HVDC has lower losses and a smaller footprint than traditional AC transmission systems. It can also stabilize intermittent power supplies that might otherwise disrupt the grid.

Today’s announcement marks the second Brazilian transmission project to using HVDC at 600 kV. The Itaipu project, with two transmission lines built by ABB in the 1980s, is the world’s highest-voltage DC power transmission system in operation.

Another company working to expand its transmission lines to handle the growing need for renewable energy is Rosemead, Calif.-based Southern California Edison. The power utility said its Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project in California would be capable of delivering 4,500 megawatts of electricity from wind farms and other renewable projects in northern Los Angeles and eastern Kern counties when it's complete in 2013 (see Edison expanding transmission lines for renewable).

Earlier this month, Texas billionaire and oil baron T. Boone Pickens axed plans to build what was expected to be the world’s largest wind farm due to constraints with Texas building transmission lines, dubbed the Panhandle Loop, to carry power to the state’s main grid (see Winds die for T. Boone Pickens’ Texas project).