2008-09-04 - Many ABB cable installations are milestones in power transmission history, reflecting 140 years of expertise and close collaboration with customers all over the world.
By ABB Communications
In ground or under water, electricity in countries around the world is transported via high-voltage cables manufactured at ABB's factory in Karlskrona, Sweden.
ABB delivered the world’s first:
1870
Fuse wires for Alfred Nobel’s dynamite, the world’s first safely manageable explosive
1924
ABB developed the lead extrusion process to achieve a watertight cable and introduced steel armoring to increase the strength of the cables
1952
400-kV AC transmission cable, Sweden
ABB designed and installed the first 400-kV AC cable ever in 1952 – a 70-meter low pressure oil-filled (LPOF) cable that connected an underground power station (built to withstand an atomic bomb) to the Swedish grid
1954
High voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system, Sweden
Revolutionary ABB innovations in AC-DC converter stations and mass impregnated (MI) cables made possible the world’s first HVDC transmission system, providing 20MW of power via a 100-km DC cable at 100-kV between the island of Gotland and the Swedish mainland
1973
Cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) high voltage cable, Sweden-Finland
ABB was the first to use the new environmentally friendly XLPE technology in a high voltage submarine cable application – a 55-km 145-kV extruded cable between Sweden and the Finnish island of Åland
1973
420-kV AC submarine cable and grid interconnection, Denmark-Sweden
An 8.5-km LPOF cable that connects the power grids of Denmark and Sweden, establishing a new record of submarine AC transmission at 420-kV
1978
245-kV AC XLPE underground cable, Libya
A major breakthrough in cable technology that made possible, for the first time, transmission via an XLPE-insulated cable at 245-kV
1994
450-kV HVDC submarine cable and grid interconnection, Germany-Sweden
The 250-km HVDC cable is one of the longest submarine cables in the world. The 600MW and 450-kV rating set a new world record when it went into operation in 1994
1998
HVDC Light™ transmission system, Sweden
ABB’s second revolutionary breakthrough in HVDC technology enables transmission at lower power levels of between a few megawatts and 1000MW. The first HVDC Light installation delivers 50MW of power at 80-kV from a wind farm on the island of Gotland, Sweden, via a 70-km underground cable to the island’s main population center of Visby
2002
HVDC Light submarine cable, United States
The 40-km 150-kV submarine cable with a capacity of 330MW links New Haven, Connecticut with Long Island, New York, across the environmentally sensitive sea channel of Cross Sound
2005
Power-from-shore DC submarine cable, North Sea
The 68-km 84MW HVDC Light submarine cable delivers DC electric power from the Norwegian mainland to Statoil’s Troll A gas production platform in the North Sea
ABB delivered the world’s longest:
2002
Underground cable – Murraylink, Australia
The 180-km 150-kV HVDC Light cable connects the Victoria and South Australia power grids. The installation was awarded the 2002 Case EARTH Award for Environmental Excellence for best practice and innovation in the environmental management of civil construction projects
2008
Submarine cable – NorNed, Norway-Netherlands
NorNed connects the power grids of Norway and the Netherlands via a 580-km HVDC cable that delivers 700MW of power at 450-kV. The cable is almost twice the length of the previous record holder, which was also supplied by ABB: the 245-km SwePol link between Poland and Sweden