HVDC > HVDC Light > Applications > Powering islands & remote loads
Don't use expensive fuel in small uneconomic plants - make a HVDC Light connection to a larger grid!
Island power
Cost versus distance for supplying remote island loads was the in fact the first application of classic HVDC already in 1954 with the link from the Swedish mainland to Gotland. But classic HVDC had a drawback in that it required synchronous compensators if the link was to be a dominant feeder of the isolated grid. With HVDC Light, no synchronous compensator is needed, and the power range has been reduced down to a few tens of MW. Therefore HVDC Light can replace polluting, inefficient and expensive local generation and replace it with power from the main grid. Several such applications are being studied.
Remote mainland loads
For loads in the range below 100 MW, local generation was necessary in the past if the distance between the existing electric grid and the load was beyond what is possible to achieve economically using traditional AC technology.
The HVDC Light system makes it possible to cost effectively bridge across large distances with a minimum of losses. This is because the relatively high operating costs associated with the transportation of diesel fuel to remote generators as well as the low energy conversion efficiency of small diesel-generator units, are effectively eliminated by deploying the HVDC Light system and transmitting electricity from a larger grid. Such application of HVDC Light is foreseen for small cities, mining towns, villages and other places located far from any electrical network. In this way, the advantages afforded by large electricity grids are brought basically to any place on land.
