BRAZIL -- Furnas Centrais Elétricas (Furnas), a subsidiary of Eletrobras, is investing around $3.5 million in a substation reinforcement project in the Ibiúna municipality of the State of São Paulo.

The project was authorized by the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) with an implementation period of 36 months, but the Furnas teams managed to bring forward the completion of the work by 10 months, Furnas said in a press release.

Furnas invested around $3.5 million in the equipment, which integrates the direct current (DC) transmission system at Itaipu.

A new 345/20 kV, 350 MVA reserve three-phase transformer was put into operation on July 16 at the Ibiúna Substation.

For the replacement of the transformer, civil works were necessary for adjustments in the street, drainage and grounding and shielding systems of the substation, construction of a new base for the reserve equipment, in addition to the work of replacement of the transformer, which involved disassembly, removal and assembly of the equipment.

The substation reinforcement should increase the reliability of the existing installations, allowing the continuity of the operation of all synchronous compensators, with the availability of a reserve unit for the transformers that supply these machines. A transfer route was also built to expedite the maneuvers to replace equipment that can reach 300 tons.

Furnas anticipates the works at the Ibiúna Substation to be completed in 10 months.

Source: FURNAS