WCA November 2016

Industry news

Ultra-high transmission ABB has orders worth over $300 million to supply technology for the world’s first 1,100kV ultra-high voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission link. The Changji-Guquan UHVDC link will carry power from the Xinjiang region in the northwest, to Anhui province in eastern China, and is believed to set a new world record in terms of voltage level, transmission capacity and distance. It will be capable of transporting 12,000MW of electricity, a 50 per cent increase in transmission capacity compared with the 800kV UHVDC links currently in operation. This will also extend the transmission distance from around 2,000km to over 3,000km and play a key role in transmitting power over greater distances and facilitating a more interconnected grid. “China has major load centres in its eastern region, while a significant amount of its energy resources are in the west and northwest. The expansive geography and increased demand over the last decade have prompted the build-up of UHV capacity to transmit larger amounts of power over greater distances with minimum losses,” said Claudio Facchin, president of ABB’s power grids division. UHVDC transmission is an advancement of HVDC, a technology pioneered by ABB over 60 years ago, and is said to represent the biggest capacity and efficiency leap in over two decades. In 2010, ABB supported SGCC with the Xiangjiaba-Shanghai project, the first 800kV UHVDC link to go into commercial operation, and was the first to successfully develop and test 1,100kV converter transformer technology. ABB – Switzerland Website : www.abb.com

New area sales manager for South America

Alfredo Torres has been working for Niehoff Group as the new area sales manager for the South American countries. Mr Torres holds an engineering degree in manufacturing processes and has gained vast experience in various industrial areas such as automotive and the wire and cable industry where he has worked among other fields in R&D, engineering and maintenance and in the development of all kinds of cables. Working as a commercial area manager for Latin America focusing on machinery installation and commissioning, pre and aftersales technical assistance as well as wire and cable manufacturing process development and integral development for wire and cable plants, he has gained an overall knowledge in the industry. Together with the Niehoff agency in Chile, Rheintek Chile Limitada, Mr Torres will take care of customers in South America, in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, marketing the machinery portfolio of Niehoff Germany. His

second field of activity will be the sales of all machinery built at Niehoff-Herborn Máquinas Ltda, Brazil, supporting them in their sales area. Maschinenfabrik Niehoff & Co KG – Germany Website : www.niehoff.de ❍ Alfredo Torres – the new area sales manager for Niehoff in South America

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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2016