The Al-Fadhili back-to-back HVDC station is a back-to-back

HVDC A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system (also called a power superhighway or an electrical superhighway) uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating curren ...

connection between

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

, whose grid operates at 60 Hz, and its neighbouring Gulf states which have 50 Hz grids.Barrett,B.T., MacLeod,N.M, Sud,S., Al-Mohiasen, A.I., Al-Nasser,R.S.
Planning and design of the Al Fadhili 1800 MW HVDC inter-connector in Saudi Arabia
, CIGRÉ session, Paris, 2008, paper reference B4-113. The station is located in Saudi Arabia, approximately 100 km north-west of

Dammam Dammam ( ar, الدمّام ') is the fifth-most populous city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, and Medina. It is the capital of the Eastern Province. With a total population of 1,252,523 as of 2020. The judicial and administrative ...

, but was built for and owned by

Gulf Cooperation Council The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf ( ar, مجلس التعاون لدول العربية الخليج ), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; ar, مجلس التعاون الخليجي), is a regional, interg ...

Interconnection Authority (GCCIA). The

converter station An HVDC converter station (or simply converter station) is a specialised type of substation which forms the terminal equipment for a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line.Arrillaga, Jos; High Voltage Direct Current Transmission, se ...

was built by

Areva Areva S.A. is a French multinational group specializing in nuclear power headquartered in Courbevoie, France. Before its 2016 corporate restructuring, Areva was majority-owned by the French state through the French Alternative Energies and Atom ...

T&D, now

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

Grid, between 2006 and 2009. GCCIA is constructing a 400 kV, 50 Hz AC transmission line to interconnect

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

and

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

through Saudi Arabia. Later phases will also connect

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

and

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. The Al-Fadhili HVDC system allows power to be exchanged between the 50 Hz GCCIA system and Saudi Electricity Company system. The converter station consists three identical poles, each with a nominal power transmission rating of 600 MW and an overload rating of 660 MW. Each pole has nominal DC voltage and current ratings of 222 kV, 2776 A. Unlike most HVDC systems, which are designed to be used more or less continuously for transmission of power, the Al-Fadhili system is normally intended to remain in standby mode, only transmitting power between the two systems after a major loss of generation in one system. The converter poles are normally kept blocked but the control systems continuously monitor the frequencies of the two grids and, upon detection of a sudden change of frequency, deblock one or two poles as needed to restore the shortage of power. This allows ''Spinning reserve'' to be shared between the two system and as a result the concept is known as ''Dynamic Reserve Power Sharing'' (DRPS). With a total power rating of 1800 MW, the Al-Fadhili system was, on completion, the largest HVDC back-to-back system in the world Sadullah, S., Ebrahim, A.
Application of a HVDC Link to Promote Stability by Sharing Dynamic Reserve Power after Generation Deficiencies

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

Power Systems Conference and Exposition, 2009. and the first HVDC system in the Middle East.

References

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External links

GCCIA Website

Alstom Grid HVDC website
Converter stations Electric power infrastructure in Saudi Arabia Energy infrastructure completed in 2009

See also

References

External links