Power and automation technology group ABB has delivered the Lithuania-Poland high-voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnector, the LitPol Link.
Lithuanian transmission system operator Litgrid awarded a contract worth about $110m to ABB in 2013 to supply and install a HVDC converter station in Lithuania.
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The 500MW back-to-back HVDC converter station will help connect the 330kV Lithuanian grid to the 400kV Polish grid.
ABB said a conventional alternating current connection would not be feasible as power grids of both the countries are not synchronised.
The company designed, engineered, supplied, installed and commissioned the converter station, including high-voltage equipment, power transformers, thyristor valves.
The solution also incorporates the modular advanced control for HVDC (MACH) control system.
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By GlobalDataThe LitPol link is part of the European Union’s Baltic Ring initiative, which is intended at interlinking the grids of nine countries around the Baltic Sea including Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia.
ABB Grid Systems business managing director Patrick Fragman said: "The LitPol Link helps interconnect the Baltic region, improving power security and grid reliability while paving the way for power trading."
The Lithuanian electricity system is connected only with the grids of Latvia, Estonia and the countries to the east.
ABB said the LitPol Link is its 15th interconnection in the Baltic region alone.
The company has to date secured more than 110 HVDC projects, accounting a total installed capacity of more than 120,000MW.
ABB has recently secured orders worth more than $22m from Vattenfall Eldistribution to upgrade a 150kV HVDC transmission link in Sweden.
Image: The 500MW back-to-back HVDC converter station will help connect the 330kV Lithuanian grid to the 400kV Polish grid. Photo: courtesy of ABB.
