ABB Ltd.
(
ABB
) announced that it has received an order to upgrade the existing
Celilo HVDC (high-voltage direct current) converter station in
Oregon. The contract, worth $260 million worth, was booked in the
fourth quarter of 2012 and was allotted by the U.S. utility
Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a power marketing agency
within the U.S. Department of Energy.
ABB's rivals in the Electric Power Infrastructure business
such as
Emerson Electric Company
(
EMR
) and
Quanta Service Inc.
(
PWR
) also have received similar contracts for maintenance, upgrading
and modernizing of the power converter stations.
The Celilo HVDC (high-voltage direct current) converter
station is an important component of the electricity link between
the Pacific Northwest and southern California. This converter
station, located at the north end of the Pacific DC Intertie,
helps in transmitting electricity from the Pacific Northwest to
almost three million households in the greater Los Angeles
area.
During winter, the northwest part of the U.S. consumes
significant quantities of power for heating while the south
requires less but in summer, the demand is reversed with more
power needed in the south for cooling. Therefore, the Pacific
Intertie allows power to flow between the Northwest and Southern
California smoothly by helping to balance supply with demand.
The Pacific Intertie, covering 846 miles, connects to the
Sylmar converter station in the south. It is also called the Path
65 and has a capacity of 3,100 megawatts (MW).
The upgrade of the converter station will primarily include
valves, controls, transformers, switchgear and cooling equipment.
Further, apart from modernizing, the upgrade will also boost the
capacity of the converter station to about 3,800 megawatts.
The modernization of the converter station is a vital part of
the maintenance, as it ensures reliability on this important HVDC
(high-voltage direct current) link by reducing risk of blackouts
and helping to secure power supply in the regions it provides
electricity.
ABB, a global leader in power and automation technology and
has initiated HVDC technology approximately six decades ago. Even
today, ABB maintains itself as the leader in this
highly-efficient technology and has completed near about 70 HVDC
projects worldwide, with a total transmission capacity of more
than 60,000 MW.
ABB currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
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