HVDC Itaipu

HVDC Itaipu
Location of HVDC Itaipu
Location
Country	Brazil
Coordinates	25°27′58″S 54°32′33″W / 25.46611°S 54.54250°W / -25.46611; -54.54250 (Foz do Iguaçu converter station) 23°40′02″S 47°06′19″W / 23.66722°S 47.10528°W / -23.66722; -47.10528 (Ibiuna converter station)
General direction	East-West
From	Itaipu hydroelectric power plan, near Foz do Iguaçu
To	Ibiúna, São Paulo
Ownership information
Owner	Furnas Centrais Elétricas S.A. Brazil
Construction information
Manufacturer of substations	ABB Group
Commissioned	October 1984, July 1987
Technical information
Type	overhead transmission line
Type of current	HVDC
Total length	780 km (480 mi)
Power rating	6300 MW
AC voltage	345 and 500 kV
DC voltage	±600 kV
No. of poles	2x2
No. of circuits	2

The HVDC Itaipu is a High-voltage direct current overhead line transmission system in Brazil from the Itaipu hydroelectric power plant to the region of São Paulo. The project consists of two ±600 kV bipoles, each with a rated power of 3150 MW, which transmit power generated at 50 Hz from the Paraguay side of the Itaipu Dam (near Foz do Iguaçu in Paraná) to the Ibiúna converter station near São Roque, São Paulo. The system was put in service in several steps between 1984 and 1987, and remains among the most important HVDC installations in the world.^[1]

When the first bipole was completed in 1985, it became the world's largest HVDC system by both power transmission capacity and voltage, titles which it would hold for 25 years until the completion, in 2010, of the ±800 kV, 6400 MW HVDC link from Xiangjiaba Dam to Shanghai in China. It also contained important innovations in real-time control systems, being one of the first HVDC schemes to use digital control equipment using microprocessors. Nevertheless, it suffered reliability problems in its first few years of operation, with numerous converter transformer failures and one serious converter fire, although reliability is now reported to be much improved.^[2]