South Korean power grid facility manufacturer LS Cable & System announced Monday that it has begun mass production of a high-voltage direct current cable with the highest transmission capacity currently available.
The new cable transmits up to 525 kilovolts and withstands temperatures up to 90 degrees Celsius, offering as much as 50 percent more capacity than standard HVDC cables, which are typically rated for 70 degrees Celsius, the company said.
LS Cable & System stated that this is the first time a high-voltage cable with this level of performance has entered mass production.
“The competitiveness of the HVDC market depends on securing commercially viable technology,” said Lee In-ho, chief technology officer at LS Cable & System.
The cable will be used in the first section of an 8-gigawatt, 250-kilometer power grid project, which will link coastal facilities in Gangwon Province to a substation in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, as part of the transmission route to Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.
While the company plans to supply cables for the remaining sections of the grid, it also aims to leverage its expertise to participate in other projects, including Korea’s “West Coast Energy Highway” and European projects led by offshore grid operator TenneT.
The West Coast Energy Highway, an 11 trillion won ($8.1 billion) project announced during President Lee Jae-myung’s election campaign, involves transporting power from offshore wind farms in the southwest to the Seoul metropolitan area through an underwater HVDC network.
Global demand for HVDC systems, estimated at 1.8 trillion won in 2018, is expected to grow to 41 trillion won by 2030, driven by the technology’s ability to transmit up to three times more power than traditional high-voltage alternating current cables while reducing transmission losses.
forestjs@heraldcorp.com
