World's First 500-KV Water-Cooled Flexible DC Transformer Starts Operation

The world's first 500-kilovolt water-cooled flexible direct current (DC) transformer started operation as system adjustment was completed at a back-to-back DC project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area on Jan 19, 2022.

The flexible DC transformer is the core equipment of a high-voltage converter station. Compared with ordinary alternating current (AC) transformers, the flexible DC transformer can realize voltage conversion and power transmission as well as AC and DC system electrical isolation and DC system protection.

A bird's-eye view of the back-to-back DC project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Contributed by Guangdong Power Engineering Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Energy Engineering Group Co., Ltd., the back-to-back DC project has the world's largest-capacity flexible DC transformer, the flexible DC converter station with the shortest control link time delay and the largest steel structure in the world's power grid industry.

It is also the world's first back-to-back converter station to have a heterosynchronous control function and the first of its kind to be equipped with a water-cooled transformer.

Once operational, the project is expected to help improve local network structure and enhance power supply capability of the Greater Bay Area.

It will also improve power exchange and emergency response capacities and reduce mutual effect between AC and DC power grids in the western and eastern regions of Guangdong.

Last but not least, the project will contribute to realizing China's goal of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2060.

(Executive editor: Niu Yilin)