The Vyborg HVDC scheme is a system of electricity transmission from the Russian power system to

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, using

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 ...

. It consists of four 355 MVA (250 MW) back-to-back converter blocks, the first three of which were completed in the early 1980sCompendium of HVDC schemes, CIGRÉbr>Technical Brochure No. 003
1987, pp. 129–134. and the last in January 2001.Ivakin,V.N., Kovalev, V.D., Lazarev,N.S., Lytaev,R.A., Mazurenko, A.K., Balyberdin, L.L., Kraichik, Y.S., Smirnov, A.A.
Experience of reconstruction and expansion of Vyborg back-to-back HVDC link
CIGRÉ session, Paris, 2002, paper reference 14-103. Much of the original converter equipment has been refurbished or modernised.

History

Electricity transmission from the 330 kV Russian (then the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

) system to the 400 kV Finnish system started in 1981. As the Russian and Finnish power systems are asynchronous, a direct AC connection was not possible and a

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 ...

-back-to-back station was needed. It was decided to build the substation near

Vyborg Vyborg (; rus, Вы́борг, links=1, r=Výborg, p=ˈvɨbərk; fi, Viipuri ; sv, Viborg ; german: Wiborg ) is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus ne ...

in the Leningrad region. The first unit of the substation was commissioned in December 1981 followed by the second unit in the autumn 1982 and the third unit in the summer 1984. The system was manufactured by the Ministry for Electrotechnical Industry of the USSR. A fourth unit was added in 2001 and the control and protection equipment of the three original poles has subsequently been modernised. In contrast to most other HVDC plants, its converters did not originally allow bidirectional energy to transfer, but only from Russia to the power grid of Finland. It was also the only back-to-back HVDC system in Russia and the only fully operational HVDC system in Russia, the others having either been shut down ( Moscow–Kashira), never completed ( Ekibastuz–Tambov) or are operated only at reduced capacity ( Volgograd–Donbass). On 13 May 2022, RAO Nordic released a statement saying they were halting the import of power into Finland due to lack of payment. Power transmission halted at 2200 GMT 13 May 2022.

Technical description

The Vyborg substation is located east of

at . It is connected with the Russian and Finnish high-voltage power systems. The substation is connected to the Russian power system with two 330 kV lines to Vostochnaya substation and with one line to Kamennogorskaya substation. It is connected with Finland with three 400 kV cross-border connections to Yllikkälä (two lines) and Kymi (one line) substations. The substation consist of four independent, parallel symmetrical monopole (centre-grounded) back-to-back units, each rated 355 MVA and operating with a voltage of ± 85 kV. Each pole consists of a single Twelve-pulse bridge at each end and was built using

thyristor A thyristor () is a solid-state semiconductor device with four layers of alternating P- and N-type materials used for high-power applications. It acts exclusively as a bistable switch (or a latch), conducting when the gate receives a current ...

s from the outset. The first three poles were originally built using small (60 mm) diameter thyristors with three in parallel at each level, but these were later replaced by larger 80 mm thyristors which did not require parallel connection. The converter

transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...

s are of the relatively unusual single-phase, four-winding arrangement, with a 38.5 kV filter winding on which the tuned filters are connected. Other high-pass filters are connected directly to the 330 kV or 400 kV AC busbars. With a total transmission rating of 1000 MW, Vyborg was the world's largest HVDC-back-to-back facility until the 1800 MW Al-Fadhili facility was completed in

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 ...

in 2009.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.

References

{{Reflist

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20051115135709/http://www.transmission.bpa.gov/cigresc14/Compendium/Vyborg+Pictures.pdf High-voltage direct current Converter stations Transport in Vyborg Electric power infrastructure in Russia Energy infrastructure completed in 1984 Energy in the Soviet Union Finland–Soviet Union relations Electric power infrastructure in Finland

History

Technical description

See also

References

External links