ABB completed two major substation projects in October 2018 to support National Grid’s Richborough Connection, a brand new transmission line between Canterbury and Richborough in Kent. The new AC line is the onshore connection for the Nemo Link HVDC interconnection between the UK and Belgium, which was energised on 5th December 2018.
National Grid’s investment will enhance energy security for the UK’s homes and businesses. While the new HVDC converter station in Richborough is on the site of a former power station, National Grid needed to reinforce the network to transmit up to 1,000 MW of power for the Nemo Link.
To support this, ABB’s delivered a brand new high-voltage substation based on GIS technology in Richborough adjacent to the HVDC converter compound. In addition, ABB extended the Canterbury AIS substation with seven new GIS substation bays to support the Richborough Connection as well as other local circuits. The turnkey projects were valued at around £50 million and included design, supply, installation and commissioning.
A notable part of the projects was the adoption of ABB’s new-generation compact indoor ELK-3 GIS. It is 33 percent smaller by volume than previous models of switchgear. This has enabled ABB to deliver the scheme inside the limited footprint at both sites, as well as minimise the civil engineering and other associated costs. In operation, the switchgear is a more manageable size for ease of inspection and maintenance by the operator’s engineers and technicians.
It also has more straightforward transportation and packaging needs, which helps to reduce its carbon footprint. Compact size also means a reduced carbon footprint from a lower volume of insulating SF6 gas.
In addition, ABB installed a 200 MVAr shunt reactor at the Canterbury site to increase the energy efficiency of power transmission and reduce transmission costs by improving power quality.
Andy Myatt, Managing Director for ABB’s Power Grids Division in the UK, said: “We were delighted to help National Grid meet its target energisation dates for the Richborough Connection, which in turn ensured that the Nemo Link was energised on schedule.
“The substations at Canterbury and Richborough have taken the number of sites to feature ABB’s new generation ELK-3 switchgear to a total of ten. This is further confirmation that our compact GIS yields considerable savings in space, which represents savings in construction and installation costs for network operators.”
