For the private investor Adani Power Limited (APL) Siemens Energy is to install a bipolar 500-kV high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission system with a capacity of 2,500 MW in India. Starting in February 2011, the HVDC system is scheduled to provide low-loss transmission of electrical energy over a distance of approximately 960 km from a coal-fired power plant near the port city of Mundra on India’s west coast to the industrial regions of the state of Haryana in the vicinity of New Delhi.

Adani Power will not only operate the HVDC system; the private investor is also owner of the coal-fired power plant near Mundra. Adani is also India’s major importer of coal and operates the world’s largest harbor terminal for imported coal. At the same time the Ahmedabad-based company is India’s largest private energy trader. Adani’s coal-fired power plant in Mundra has a total capacity of 4,620 MW and is in the future to supply urgently required electrical energy to the Haryana industrial region near New Delhi, which is located approximately one thousand kilometers away. Low-loss transmission over that distance is only possible with the planned HVDC system.

Siemens will assume overall responsibility for the project, including design of the entire HVDC system, and will supply core components such as the converter valves, converter transformers, smoothing reactors, protection and I&C equipment, and the AC and DC filters. Siemens will also handle shipping operations, civil engineering, installation and commissioning. “This project marks a further milestone in the expansion of our HVDC competence in India“, said Dr. Udo Niehage, CEO of the Power Transmission Division of Siemens Energy.

This is the third HVDC system to be installed by Siemens in India. The converter station at the start of the transmission line will be erected right at the power plant’s substation. Siemens will erect the second converter station at the end of the HVDC link in the vicinity of the “Bhiwadi” converter station. This station is part of the “Ballia-Bhiwadi“ HVDC system, which is still under construction. This system is the second HVDC transmission line built by Siemens in India. It is scheduled to come on line in November of this year.

The first HVDC transmission line was the long-distance east-south link, at that time the world’s second longest HVDC link. Since 2003, the Siemens system has been providing low-loss transmission of electrical energy from the Talcher power plant complex in the state of Orissa in eastern India over a distance of 1,450 km to the south to the industrial region around Bengaluru.