Alstom delivers last of giant transformers
[gallery] The Alstom factory in Stafford has just said goodbye the last of a a string of massive transformers built for a Swedish energy company.
The county town is home to the only high voltage transformer manufacturing facility in the UK and it works for companies around the world – now it's finished with Sweden, it'll be moving on to building transformers for an Indian project.
The 13 transformers, each weighing around 200 tons, are part of a £191 million project to connect Barkeryd in central Sweden to Hurva in the south of the country.
Alstom has made the transformers for Svenska Kraftnat – the Swedish national grid – at its site in Lichfield Road. Along with Alstom's St Leonard's Avenue site the company employs 1,700 in the town.
The project has taken most of a year and is due for completion in the coming months. It involves using high voltage direct current technology developed by Alstom, which has its head office in France.
As well as the transformers, Alstom in Stafford also produced the project's voltage source converters (VSCs) which are used at the converter stations at both ends of the electricity line.
Usually electricity lines are AC – alternating current – but, over long distances, this type of transmission line 'loses' electricity. Alstom's technology – both the transformers and the VSCs – converts the electricity to DC – direct current – and then back again to minimise those transmission losses.
The South West Link project is intended to increase the reliability of Sweden's electricity grids in the area.
The final transformer, weighing in at 205 tonnes, was loaded up and took two days to reach the port at Liverpool. The journey takes so long because Alstom has to devise a route with local police along the way to reduce traffic disruption, avoid weak bridges and make use of roundabouts where street furniture can be removed so the lorry can go straight through the middle.
As part of the wider project, in addition to supplying the HVDC converter stations at both ends of the power line, Alstom is providing control and protection equipment, converter transformers, switchyard equipment, construction and project management.
Alstom Grid has been providing HVDC solutions for 50 years and is one of the pioneers of this type of technology.
