Majorca connection to Spanish mainland

Siemens Power Transmission and Distribution (PTD) has been awarded its third HVDC order in Europe within the last six months.

Siemens is delivering the two converter stations for the new high-voltage direct current transmission link (HVDC) between Morvedre near Valencia and Santa Ponsa near Palma de Mallorca, connecting the Balearic island of Majorca with the Spanish mainland. From May 2011, the 250km long, 250 kV HVDC submarine cable with a power capacity of 400MW will provide the resort island with environmentally friendly and low-loss power supply from the Spanish mainland. The customer is Red Eléctrica de Espana (REE).

The aim of the new high-voltage direct current link is to ensure a reliable power supply with minimal losses to the resort island of Majorca without building new power plants. Over 790,000 thousand inhabitants live on Majorca, the largest of the Balearic islands, with up to seven million holidaymakers visiting the island every year. Thanks to this first access to the electricity market on the Spanish mainland, the peak load demands of Majorca can be covered by electricity imports from the European power grid, especially during the main holiday season in the hot summer months. This will save emissions of over 1.2 megatons of CO2 per year.

Siemens will be responsible for the delivery and installation of the HVDC converter station on a turnkey basis, as well as gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) and a highly integrated switching station (HIS) for connection to the network. The order also includes core components such as Thyristor valves, converter transformers, smoothing reactors, protection and control systems and the AC and DC filters.