Pacific Intertie

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The HVDC power line in Los Angeles (shorter tower carrying two wires on the right). The power line is crossing Interstate 5 near the interchange with California 14 in Sylmar. This crossing is the last one for the line, as the Sylmar Converter Station is right to the west of Interstate 5.

The Pacific Intertie is a high voltage direct current transmission line between the Celilo Converter Station outside The Dalles, Oregon and the Sylmar Converter Station outside Los Angeles. Finished in 1970, the Pacific Intertie consists of a 1362 kilometer overhead transmission line. Originally only mercury arc rectifiers were used as static inverter valves. The valves were series connected in three six-pulse valve bridges for each pole. The blocking voltage of the valves was 133 kV with a maximum current of 1800 amperes, for a transmission rate of 1440 megawatts with a symmetrical voltage of 400 kV against earth. The line is the DC part of a system of four 500 kV lines that connect the Pacific Northwest with the Southwest; the AC part is Path 15. This is one of two HVDC lines serving Los Angeles, the other is the Intermountain.

The idea of shipping hydroelectric power to Southern California had been proposed as early as the 1930s, but was opposed and scrapped. By 1961, U.S. president John F. Kennedy authorized a large public works project, using the new high voltage direct current technology from Sweden. The project was undertaken as a close collabaration between General Electric of the U.S. and ASEA of Sweden. Private California power companies opposed the project but their technical objections were rebutted by Uno Lamm of ASEA at the IEEE meeting in New York in 1963. When completed in 1970 the combined AC and DC transmission system was estimated to save consumers in Los Angeles approximately U.S. $600,000 per day by use of electric power from projects on the Columbia River.

• In 1972, after the Sylmar earthquake, the static inverter station in Sylmar had to be reconstructed after damage to the largest part.
• In 1982, the power rating of the mercury arc valve rectifiers was raised by various improvements to 1600 megawatts.
• In 1984, the transmission voltage was pushed to 500kV and the transmission power was increased to 2000 megawatts by adding two six-pulse thyristor valve groups to each pole.
• In 1989, a further increase of the transmission power took place by a parallel switched thyristor static inverter in Celilo and Sylmar.
• In 2004, Sylmar East station was upgraded from 1,100 MW to 3,100 MW (rededicated as the Sylmar Converter Station in 2005)

See also

External links

• http://www.abb.com/GLOBAL/GAD/GAD02181.NSF/viewUNID/C1256D71001E0037C1256B8000371E41!OpenDocument
• http://www.abb.com/GLOBAL/GAD/GAD02181.NSF/viewUNID/C1256D71001E0037C1256B81002E886B!OpenDocument
• http://www.transmission.bpa.gov/cigresc14/Compendium/PACIFIC.htm
• http://www.transmission.bpa.gov/cigresc14/Compendium/Pacific%20Pictures.pdf

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