The Elbe Project (german: Elbe-Projekt) was the name of the first commercial, static
high voltage direct current
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 curre ...
transmission system constructed in the world. The scheme was based on
mercury arc valve
A mercury-arc valve or mercury-vapor rectifier or (UK) mercury-arc rectifier is a type of electrical rectifier used for converting high-voltage or high-current alternating current (AC) into direct current (DC). It is a type of cold cathode gas-fil ...
s.
Experimental installations between
Wettingen
Wettingen is a residential community in the district of Baden in the Swiss canton of Aargau. With a population about 20,000, Wettingen is the second-largest municipality in the canton.
Geography
Wettingen is located on the right bank of the Li ...
and
Zürich
, neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon
, twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco
Zürich ...
in
Switzerland, and
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg () is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Prussia, it is best known for Charlottenburg Palace, the ...
and
Moabit
Moabit () is an inner city locality in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany. As of 2016, around 77,000 people lived in Moabit. First inhabited in 1685 and incorporated into Berlin in 1861, the former industrial and working-class neighbourhood i ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, were demonstrated between 1933 and 1942. Contracts were signed with
AEG and
Siemens in 1941, and construction began of a
bipolar direct current line from the
Vockerode power station near
Dessau on the
Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Re ...
, to Berlin-
Marienfelde
Marienfelde () is a locality in southwest Berlin, Germany, part of the Tempelhof-Schöneberg borough. The former village, incorporated according to the Greater Berlin Act of 1920, today is a mixed industrial and residential area.
Geography
The ...
, in 1943. The line was designed to transmit 60
megawatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
s using a symmetrical bipolar operating voltage of +200 kV and −200 kV. Two single-core buried cables with aluminum conductors were used. A piece of the cable used can be seen in the
Deutsches Museum
The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science and technology, with about 28,000 exhibited objects from ...
,
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
.
While the former converter valve hall at Vockerode Power Plant still exists and was used as a workshop, the corresponding hall at Berlin-Marienfelde, which was situated just north of today's Marienfelde substation, was demolished and replaced by a large hardware store.
The system was never put into service owing to the chaos in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
at the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. The
Soviets
Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union.
Nationality policy in ...
dismantled the system as part of war reparation payments, and reused it in building the 115 kilometre long 200 kV
Moscow–Kashira monopolar high voltage direct current line with a maximum transmission rating of 30 megawatts in 1951.
[Kimbark, E.W., Direct current transmission, volume 1, Wiley Interscience, 1971, pp 7–8.] This transmission line is no longer operating.
Sites
References
External links
{{Portal, Germany, Energy
Power Electronics in EuropeModern Power Systems - 100 Years of High Voltage Links, 1 November 2007, retrieved 27 January 2009
HVDC transmission lines
Research and development in Nazi Germany
Electric power transmission systems in Germany