This article needs additional citations for verification .(March 2022) |
GKK Etzenricht, an abbreviation of Gleichstromkurzkupplung Etzenricht, meaning Etzenricht HVDC-back-to-back station, was an HVDC back-to-back facility near Etzenricht in the district of Neustadt an der Waldnaab in Bavaria, Germany.[ citation needed ] It was built on the site of the Etzenricht substation, a 380 kV/220 kV/110 kV-substation, which went into service in 1970 and expanded afterwards several times. The facility was used between 1993 and 1995 for the exchange of power between Germany and the Czech Republic, operated by Bayernwerk AG (now part of TenneT). [1]
Construction started April 26, 1991 and was completed September 1991. First power was achieved in May 1992 and a powerline to Hradec, Czech Republic was completed September 3, 1992.
Trial operation started January 27, 1993 with official opening July 9, 1993. It was shut down after synchronisation of the German and the Czech Power Grid on October 18, 1995.
After the synchronization of the power grids between Germany and Czech, the maximum amount of power which can be transmitted between Etzenricht and Hradec increased from 600 MW to 1316 MW. The inauguration of the second 380 kV-interconnection to Prestice substation on July 29, 1997 increased the transmission capacity from Etzenricht to Czech to further 1579 MW, so via Etzenricht substation today a maximum power exchange of 2895 MW between Czechia and Germany is possible.
In 1997, after inauguration of the second 380 kV-powerline to Czechia, which ends at Prestice substation, most external components of GKK Etzenricht were dismantled and stored on the area of the facility. Since beginning of this dismantling, the facility was not in working condition any more. Only the transformers, the smoothing reactor and one harmonic filter remained on their original sites. Since shutdown of the static inverter, it was planned to sell the installation to eastern Europe, where it would have allowed the construction of an HVDC back-to-back station for exchanging power between eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. As the static inverter went more and more out of date and one was meanwhile able to build static inverters like that of GKK Etzenricht much simpler by using photo thyristors, no such deal ever took place. In 2006 the facility was sold to IDPC, an Austrian recycling company, which wanted first to sell the installation completely and as this did not work, part by part. However, only a few components were sold. In spring 2009 all remaining components of GKK Etzenricht were dismantled and scrapped.
GKK Etzenricht had a maximum transmission power of 600 megawatts (MW) and worked with a DC voltage of 160 kV. The two static inverters are in a 13 metres (43 ft) high hall with 430 square metres (4,630 sq ft) of surface area, which was built in a combination of local and finished concrete building method. Each static inverter consists of 432 thyristors, which are put in six thyristor towers arranged in a row. Each thyristor tower has 2 valve functions and consist of 8 thyristor modules, which are arranged one on top of the other. Each thyristor module consists of 9 thyristors switched in series and the necessary auxiliary equipment as the saturation coils, which are in series with the thyristors. Parallel to each thyristor a series combination of a resistor and a capacitor is switched, which limits the speed of current grow. From this combination the power for the supply of the electronic used for thyristor steering is gained. The electronic used for thyristor steering has at operation a high voltage potential against ground. It is connected to the main control electronic on ground potential by fiber-optic cables, which allow a bidirectional data transmission. Parallel to each thyristor module a capacitor and parallel to each valve function a varistor is switched. As thyristors the model U78 S346 S34 manufactured by Siemens, which has a maximum power rating of 4100 amperes and which was when GKK Etzenricht was built the most powerful thyristor in the world. At both ends of the hall there are three bays for the accommodation of the static inverter transformers, which are built as single-phase units.
Etzenricht-Hradec powerline | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | Germany, Czech |
Coordinates | 49°37′52″N12°06′57″E / 49.63111°N 12.11583°E 49°38′56″N12°10′34″E / 49.64889°N 12.17611°E 49°38′28″N12°19′22″E / 49.64111°N 12.32278°E 49°36′07″N12°27′42″E / 49.60194°N 12.46167°E 49°38′33″N12°31′13″E / 49.64250°N 12.52028°E 49°40′49″N12°47′05″E / 49.68028°N 12.78472°E 50°20′47″N13°19′36″E / 50.34639°N 13.32667°E |
General direction | west–east; north-south |
From | Etzenricht, Germany |
Passes through | Border of Czech |
To | Hradec, Czech |
Construction information | |
Construction started | 1992 |
Commissioned | 1993 |
Technical information | |
Type | Overhead transmission line |
Type of current | HVAC |
Total length | 163 km (101 mi) |
No. of transmission towers | 471 |
Power rating | 1,316 MW |
AC voltage | 380 kV |
No. of circuits | 1 ( 1 Etzenricht-Prestice) |
Etzenricht-Prestice powerline | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | Germany, Czech |
Coordinates | 49°37′52″N12°06′57″E / 49.63111°N 12.11583°E 49°38′56″N12°10′34″E / 49.64889°N 12.17611°E 49°38′28″N12°19′22″E / 49.64111°N 12.32278°E 49°36′07″N12°27′42″E / 49.60194°N 12.46167°E 49°38′33″N12°31′13″E / 49.64250°N 12.52028°E 49°40′49″N12°47′05″E / 49.68028°N 12.78472°E 49°35′22″N13°20′06″E / 49.58944°N 13.33500°E |
General direction | west–east |
From | Etzenricht, Germany |
Passes through | Border of Czech |
To | Prestice, Czech |
Construction information | |
Construction started | 1997 |
Commissioned | 1997 |
Technical information | |
Type | Overhead transmission line |
Type of current | HVAC |
Total length | 110 km (68 mi) |
No. of transmission towers | 300 |
Power rating | 1,579 MW |
AC voltage | 380 kV |
No. of circuits | 1 |
GKK Etzenricht was used in connection with the power transmission line between Germany and the Czech Republic. The single-circuit 380kV power transmission link runs from the (Ex) GKK Etzenricht to the Czech substations at Hradec u Kadaně. In 1997 a second single-circuit 380 kV-interconnection from Etzenricht to Přeštice substation was realized. Its conductors, which are of the same type as that used for the line to Hradec, are between Etzenricht and Straz installed on the same pylons. For overvoltage protection the whole powerline is equipped with two ground conductors, which are installed on a separate crossbar on the top of the pylons. One conductor contains a fiber optic cable for data transmission.
The link from Etzenricht to Hradec has a maximum power transmission capacity of 1639 MW at an operating voltage of 380 kV. However it is limited by substation equipment to 1316 MW. On the German section of the line the conductors are bundles of four ropes consisting of steel and aluminum. Each conductor has a cross section of 340 mm² aluminum and 30 mm² steel. Between Weiden and Etzenricht this line is installed on 14 pylons of the "Danube type". One of these pylons was built after the shutdown of the GKK, in order to run the line directly - past the static inverter hall - into the switchyard of the Etzenricht substation. By this the length of the German section of the line grow by 180 metres to 33.8 kilometres. Except of the first pylon, these pylons were used before 1992 for the 110 kV-powerline from Etzenricht to Weiden. In 1992 this line was rebuilt on pylons running parallel to the old 110 kV-powerline to Weiden, whose pylons were equipped with a third crossbar for the ground conductors and with the 380 kV-conductors for the line to Czech.
The section between Weiden/Oberpfalz and Eslarn consists of 60 pylons with a fourth crossbar under the crossbars for the 380 kV conductors in order to carry the two 110 kV circuits of the powerline Weiden/Oberpfalz - Vohenstrauss and the two 30 kV-circuits for the powerline between Vohenstrauss and Eslarn. This was necessary because, due to environmental protection, only one right of way was available. Therefore, the circuits of these lines, which existed in 1992 already since several years, had to be installed on the pylons of the powerline with the 380 kV-circuits to the Czech Republic. In Vohenstrauss the 110 kV-circuits run to the local substation, which is situated close to the right of way of the powerline to the Czech Republic.
Behind Vohenstrauss on the lowest crossbar the circuits of the 30 kV-line Vohenstrauss-Eslarn are installed. For a future upgrade of this line to 110 kV, the conductors of this line are mounted on insulators for 110 kV on the pylons. Near Riedlhof this line leaves the track of the line to Czech and runs on concrete pylons to Eslarn substation. From Riedlhof the 380 kV-line to the Czech Republic runs on 15 pylons of "Danube type" to the border between Germany and the Czech Republic. The border is crossed close north of the border crossing of the motorway A6 near Furth in Forest.
After the border the construction type of pylon does not change, but their design and the type of conductors. In the Czech Republic the line uses conductors, which are bundles of 3 conductors with a cross section of 450 mm² aluminum and 50 mm² steel. 31.5 kilometers behind the frontier near Straz the line splits off in two 380kV-lines with a single circuit. One of these lines is the 97.5 kilometres (60.6 mi) long line section to Hradec in Northern Bohemia and the other is the line to Přeštice, which was built in 1997. Both lines are installed on Delta type pylons.
A very remarkable feature is, that the powerline to Hradec substation is implemented on its last section on the area of Hradec substation between the termination portal and the busbar as underground cable.
South of the facility on a hill at 49°37'28" N and 12°6'55" E there is a 55 meters tall free-standing lattice tower, which was built in 1973. It is used for directional radio links for remote controlling Etzenricht substation and GKK Etzenricht, which are both not permanently manned.
Southwest of the facility at 49°37'29" N and 12°7'33" E there is a compressor station for natural gas owned by MEGAL.
A transmission tower is a tall structure, usually a lattice tower made of steel that is used to support an overhead power line. In electrical grids, transmission towers carry high-voltage transmission lines that transport bulk electric power from generating stations to electrical substations, from which electricity is delivered to end consumers; moreover, utility poles are used to support lower-voltage sub-transmission and distribution lines that transport electricity from substations to electricity customers.
The Kontek HVDC is a 170-kilometre (110 mi) long, monopolar 400 kV high-voltage direct current cable between Germany and the Danish island Zealand. Its name comes from "continent" and the name of the former Danish power transmission company "Elkraft", which operated the power grid on the Danish islands Lolland, Falster and Zealand and had the abbreviation "ek". As of today, the cable is operated by Energinet.dk in Denmark and 50Hertz Transmission GmbH in Germany.
The Baltic Cable is a monopolar HVDC power line running beneath the Baltic Sea that interconnects the electric power grids of Germany and Sweden. Its maximum transmission power is 600 megawatts (MW).
The HVDC Volgograd–Donbass is a 475 kilometres (295 mi) long bipolar ±400 kV high voltage direct current powerline used for transmitting electric power from Volga Hydroelectric Station at Volgograd in Russia to the Donbass in eastern Ukraine and vice versa.
The Pacific DC Intertie is an electric power transmission line that transmits electricity from the Pacific Northwest to the Los Angeles area using high voltage direct current (HVDC). The line capacity is 3.1 gigawatts, which is enough to serve two to three million Los Angeles households and represents almost half of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) electrical system's peak capacity.
The GK Vienna–Southeast was a back-to-back HVDC station linking the electric power grids of Austria and Hungary. It operated between June 1993 and October 1996.
The Pylons of Messina are two free-standing steel towers, the Sicilian one in Torre Faro and the Calabrian one in Villa San Giovanni. They were used from 1955 to 1994 to carry a 220 kilovolt power line across the Strait of Messina, between the Scilla substation in Calabria on the Italian mainland at 38°14′42″N15°40′59″E and the Messina-Santo substation in Sicily at 38°15′57″N15°39′04″E.
An overhead power line is a structure used in electric power transmission and distribution to transmit electrical energy along large distances. It consists of one or more conductors suspended by towers or poles. Since the surrounding air provides good cooling, insulation along long passages and allows optical inspection, overhead power lines are generally the lowest-cost method of power transmission for large quantities of electric energy.
Square Butte is the designation of a high-voltage direct current transmission line in the United States between the Milton R. Young Power Plant near Center, North Dakota at 47°4′18″N101°11′45″W and the Arrowhead converter station near Adolph at 46°46′25″N92°17′39″W. It was built by Minnkota Power Cooperative and Minnesota Power and went in service in 1977. In 2009, an agreement was executed between the two companies whereby Minnkota gets the rights to all the power currently transmitted over the line while Minnesota Power takes full ownership of the line to transmit power from new sources in the Center area.
The Kii Channel HVDC system in Japan is, as of 2012, the highest-capacity high-voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine power cable system in the world to use a single bipole, with a rated power of 1400MW. The cross channel system between England and France has a larger total capacity, but uses two bipoles rated at 1000MW each.
A traction network or traction power network is an electricity grid for the supply of electrified rail networks. The installation of a separate traction network generally is done only if the railway in question uses alternating current (AC) with a frequency lower than that of the national grid, such as in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Neckarwestheim Nuclear Power Station is a nuclear power plant in Neckarwestheim, Germany, sometimes abbreviated GKN, operated by EnBW Kernkraft GmbH, a subsidiary of EnBW.
Wolmirstedt substation is a large node in the power grid of former East Germany and termination of Germany's longest powerline, running from Lubmin nuclear power station to Wolmirstedt substation.
The GK Dürnrohr was a high-voltage direct current back-to-back scheme west of Dürnrohr substation, which was used for the energy exchange between Austria and Czechoslovakia between 1983 and 1996. The installation is no longer in use.
The Albertirsa–Zakhidnoukrainska–Vinnytsia powerline is a power transmission line between Ukraine and Hungary. It is a part of the former "Mir" transmission system between the Soviet Union and Comecon countries. As of today, it is the only 750 kV-powerline in Hungary and one of the few powerlines operated with this voltage in the European Union.
McNeill HVDC Back-to-back station is an HVDC back-to-back station at 50°35'56"N 110°1'25"W, which interconnects the power grids of the Canadian provinces Alberta and Saskatchewan and went in service in 1989. McNeill HVDC back-to-back station is the most northerly of a series of HVDC interconnectors between the unsynchronised eastern and western AC systems of the United States and Canada. The station, which was built by GEC-Alstom, can transfer a maximum power of 150 MW at a DC voltage of 42 kV. The station is unusual in many respects and contained several firsts for HVDC.
The National Grid is the nationwide system of electric power transmission in New Zealand. The grid is owned, operated and maintained by Transpower New Zealand, a state-owned enterprise, although some lines are owned by local distribution companies and leased to Transpower. In total, the national grid contains 11,803 kilometres (7,334 mi) of high-voltage lines and 178 substations.
HVDC BorWin1 is the first HVDC facility in the world to be built for importing power from an offshore wind park to shore, and the first to use voltage source converters (VSC) in Germany. It connects the offshore wind park BARD Offshore 1 and other offshore wind farms in Germany near Borkum to the European power grid. The facility was built by ABB and has a capacity of 400 MW at a bipolar voltage of ±150 kV. HVDC BorWin1, which leads from BorWin Alpha Offshore Platform to Diele substation, consists of a 75 kilometres (47 mi) of underground and 125 kilometres (78 mi) of submarine cable.
HVDC Ekibastuz–Centre is an unfinished HVDC transmission line between Ekibastuz in Kazakhstan and Tambov in Russia whose construction was started in 1978. It was planned to have a length of 2,414 kilometres (1,500 mi), which would have made it the longest powerline of the world with a maximum transmission rate of 6,000 MW and a transmission voltage of 750 kV between conductor and ground. For this line the erection of 4,000 pylons, most 41 metres (135 ft) tall, were required. Several hundred kilometres were built, including a Volga crossing on three 124 metres (407 ft) tall towers near Saratov, which were erected between 1989 and 1991. At Ekibastuz construction work at the terminal was started, while it was not the case at Centre substation, Tambov.
The Levis De-Icer is a High voltage direct current (HVDC) system, aimed at de-icing multiple AC power lines in Quebec, Canada. It is the only HVDC system not used for power transmission.
49°37′51.62″N12°6′56.3″E / 49.6310056°N 12.115639°E