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EMERGENCY REPLACEMENT OF A 500 kV HVDC CONVERTER AT SYLMAR EAST
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| Author(s) |
W. Braun; W. Fähnrich; W. Fischer; K. Sadek |
| Abstract |
The Pacific Intertie Expansion project was commissioned during 1988 with the objective of increasing the transmission capacity of a 136 km HVDC line that runs along the west coast of the United States between the Sylmar sub-station to the north of Los Angeles and the line's north em terminal at the Celilo Converter Station in the state of Oregon. The transmission capacity was up-graded from 2GW to 3.1GW by increasing the line current from 2000A to 3100A. This was achieved by connecting in parallel two 500kV, 12-pulse thyristor valve groups located at the Sylmar East converter station operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power. Unfortunately, one of the new groups of thyristor valves was destroyed in a conflagration that occurred within a valve room in the converter building during October 1993. This left the utility with reduced capacity to serve one of the largest cities in the United States and as a result emergency plans had to be put in place to make up for the shortfall in the minimum time. The plan envisaged more than just replacing those components destroyed by the fire: the latest generation of thyristor valves were to be used and all tile associated assemblies and sub-systems be made more resistant to fire and more resilient to the effects of earth tremors. Moreover, many of the associated assemblies. and sub-systems of the other thyristor valve group were replaced to bring the whole converter station up to the same level of availability. This paper outlines the salient features that made the Sylmar East Converter Station safer and more reliable in just 13 months and so allowed the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power to regain the ability to fully exploit the Pacific Intertie for maximum economic benefit and supply more energy to one of the most power-hungry cities in the world. |
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| Filename: | Unnamed file |
| Filesize: | 777 KB |
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| Type |
Members Only |
| Date |
Last modified 2016-01-05 by System |
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