WCA November 2016

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14 Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2016
Industrynews
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:
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:
New area sales manager for South America
❍ Alfredo Torres – the new area sales
manager for Niehoff in South America