INDIA - The Power Grid Corporation of India has started the 2 GW Pugalur - Thrissur HVDC project in the south of the country.

The $700 million project involves installing a 320 kV, 103 mile HVDC line between Pugalur in Tamil Nadu and Thrissur in Kerala.

In March 2017, Siemens and Sumitomo Electric were awarded a contract worth $520 million to supply the HVDC system to the project.

The order secured by Siemens included the supply of two converter stations with two parallel converters, each with a 1 GW capacity and equipped with VSC HVDC technology.

The 103-mile transmission line to Kerala includes nearly 16 miles of underground cables.

Sumitomo Electric, a manufacturer of electric wire and optical fiber cables from Osaka, Japan, secured a contract for the XLPE HVDC cable system in the DC circuit for the transmission project.

The Minister of State (IC) Power and New & Renewable Energy R.K. Singh said: "As the demand increases - and it is expected to touch 5,000 MW by 2022, the capacity to transfer more power to Kerala needs to increase."

The project marks the first HVDC interconnection of the Indian state of Kerala with the National Grid and is expected to bring it additional 2 GW of power. The new transmission line is expected to address the increasing power requirements of the southwestern Indian state.

Source: NS Energy