text:
HVDC Volgograd–Donbass

The HVDC Volgograd–Donbass is a 475 km long bipolar ±400 kV high voltage direct current powerline used for transmitting electric power from Volga Hydroelectric Station at Volgograd in Russia to Donbas in eastern Ukraine and vice versa.

The Volgograd–Donbass system was the second HVDC scheme built in the former Soviet Union, following the Moscow–Kashira HVDC scheme which had already been shut down. The Volgograd–Donbass system can transfer a maximum power of 750 MW. When completed in 1965, its operating voltage of ±400 kV was the highest in the world, and remained so until the completion of the ±450 kV Nelson River scheme in 1977. The scheme is today in a bad state and only operated with a voltage of 100 kV. Nevertheless, it is still being modernized, as a Google Map Picture of its crossing with M-4 motorway at 48.82806°N, 40.40306°W shows, where one can see that new pylons for the crossing of the motorway are under construction.

There are concerns over potential mercury contamination in the area near the Ukrainian terminal due to the risk of it being destroyed in the Ukrainian-Russian War. Some towers of the line north of Smile at 48.7225°N, 38.87222°W were destroyed in the war.

Volzhskaya converter station
The terminal at Volga Hydroelectric Station, Volzhskaya converter station, is situated on the dam of the power plant at 48.82611°N, 44.67222°W. Each of the poles consist of four series connected three-phase valve bridges, which form two series connected twelve pulse bridges. Originally all valves of the scheme were mercury arc valves designed for a voltage of 100 kV and a maximum current of 938 Amperes. Unusually for valves of such high current rating, each valve used only a single anode but because the peak reverse voltage rating was quite limited, two valves were connected in series in each converter arm. The valves used oil-cooled cathode tanks and natural air-cooled anode insulators, with internal grading electrodes inside the porcelain. Each valve stood 3.5 m tall and weighed about 2 tonnes.

In 1977 one mercury arc valve group was replaced by a thyristor valve group. The converter transformers of Volzhskaya converter station are fed directly from the generators of the Volga Hydroelectric Station with 14 kV three-phase AC, whereby two parallel switched generators feed their power into one transformer. The transformers have beside the two secondary windings required for the realization of the 12 pulse valve bridges a third winding for feeding electric power in the local 220 kV grid. The station has no harmonic filters. All required reactive power is delivered from the generators of the power plant.

Mikhailovska converter station
The converter station in Donbas area, the Mikhailovska converter station, is situated northeast of Pervomaisk, Luhansk Oblast at 48.65361°N, 38.56556°W. Similarly to Volzhskaya converter station, each pole uses four series connected three-phase valve bridges, which form two series connected twelve pulse bridges. As at Volzhskaya converter station one mercury arc valve group was replaced in 1977 by a thyristor valve group. The valves of Mikhailovska converter station are connected through the converter transformers to the local 220 kV grid. Unusually, the DC line crosses the whole AC switchyard of the substation before it enters the valve hall situated at the southern side of the station. The hall is 219 m long and has a 54 m long wing pointing in south-southwesterly direction. The Mikhailovskaya converter station has three harmonic filters, each with a reactive power of 132 MVA, which are situated 100 m northerly of the AC switchyard.

Powerline
The powerline to Donbas area has a length of 475 km and the entire length is overhead line.

The suspension towers have a single crossbar, carrying one conductor on a suspension insulator at each end of it. Two types of strainers are used: lattice towers similar to the suspension towers, but equipped with strainer insulators and of stronger design and much more often pole-type towers with a central pole supported by two diagonal bars. The latter towers carry only one conductor, and there are always 2 such towers close together.

South of Solinky at 48.72361°N, 38.85694°W, there is an unusual double pylon in the line, at which one conductor is fixed at suspension insulators, while the other is fixed with strainer insulators. The exact use of this pylon is unknown. It may carry equipment for extracting PLC-signals from the line, which may be used by Solinky 110 kV substation approximately 1 kilometres northward.

Southwest of Kamennyy between 48.93694°N, 44.50306°W and 48.94667°N, 44.51972°W the line is installed on portal pylons designed for 3 conductors, although the line has there as in all other sections just 2 conductors.

The conductors consist of bundles of 2 ACSR-conductors with 600 mm2 cross section. The whole line is equipped with a single ground wire. It is a single ACSR-wire with 70 mm2 cross section and fixed on the pinnacles of the pylons.

The line leaves Mikhailkovskaya converter station in north-northeast direction. Southeast of Onkhove it turns east-northeasterly. South of Prychiplivka it turns eastwards. East of Krasnyl Lyman it changes its way to east-northeast and passes Shchastia northward. North of Petrivka the line runs eastwards and then after Nyznoteple southwards in order not to cross a populated valley. Then at Teple it turns eastwards, however changes its way to east-southeast direction north of Harasmythka. The border to Russia is crossed north of Ushakovka at 48.81028°N, 39.77972°W, but it enters Ukraine again for a very short section south of Talove at 48.79361°N, 39.97472°W. The line runs in Russia past Krasnovka and Novotalovka until Taradinka eastwards, where it turns again toward northeast. North of Krivorzne its direction went more eastwards. In its further track, it passes between Krinychnyy and Melnichnny and runs past Krasnoschekov and Krasnoyarovka through large fields to Varlamovka. In its further track it passes south of Rusakov, south of Kalmykovsky and south of Erik. Behind Erik, its way nears Don River. Short before Don River the line turns to southeasterly in order to cross it in a right angle, The crossing itself, which is situated near Peskovatka at 48.94028°N, 43.8025°W has a span width of 608 m. As the west bank of Don River is here a hill, there are no extraordinary tall pylons used. After Don Crossing it runs the remaining way to Volgograd until a point 5 kilometres east of Kuzmichi, where it meets the 500 kV AC lines to Volgograd Hydroelectric Plant nearly straight eastward. Then it turns southeasterly and south of Erzovka southward. It crosses several areas with recreational garden houses in the northern quarters of Volgograd and passes southerly an industrial complex and the 500 kV switchyard of Volga Hydroelectric Power Plant before it reaches its destination, the inverter plant of Volga Hydroelectric Plant, which is integrated in the power station. One conductor of the line ends at the Western end of the Power Station Building, while the other crosses on the pylons of the 220 kV-powerline, which starts here the building and ends on the other site of the building. This comes from the fact, that the valve groups are switched in series and each valve group is fed by its own machine.

Electrodes and electrode lines
HVDC Volgograd–Donbass can be operated as a monopolar scheme with ground return, therefore two ground electrodes are installed. Both electrodes are designed as land electrodes consisting of a single steel rod with 30 millimetres diameter whereby coke backfill is used.

The electrode lines, which look like a 110 kV-powerlines with 2 conductors, use similar, but smaller pylons as the main line. In opposite to the main line, all strainers are free-standing lattice towers with a single crossbar, while the suspension towers of the electrode line are usually concrete poles with a single crossbar made of steel. Only suspension towers of extraordinary height are built as lattice towers.

The electrode of Mikhailovskaya converter station is situated north of Smile at 48.69221°N, 38.90998°W. It is connected with Mikhailovskaya converter station by a 32 kilometre long overhead line, which consists of two parallelized 2450 mm2 ACSR conductors. The electrode line from Mikhailovskaya converter station follows the main line on the left side seen from Mikhailovskaya converter station until a point northeast of Zolobok at 48.73361°N, 38.72398°W where it undercrosses the main line. After this point, it follows the main line on the other site until a point south of Krymske at 48.7271°N, 38.8046°W where it leaves the course of the main line in southeast direction toward the electrode.

The electrode for the terminal at Volgograd is situated northwest of Kamennyy at 49.00364°N, 44.51558°W. It is connected with it by a 24 kilometre long overhead line consisting of two parallelized 2450 mm2 ACSR conductors.

Tower at this location, 48.830929N, 44.653909E, completely removed between Oct 2021 and Jun 2022 on Google Earth images. Additional towers also removed until & over rail crossing.

48.827546N, 44.665425E last remaining tower at hydroelectric dam.

Trivia

 * HVDC Volgograd–Donbass was the first long-distance HVDC link without a submarine cable section
 * HVDC Volgograd–Donbass is the only HVDC scheme in Europe implemented as overhead line in its whole length
 * HVDC Volgograd–Donbass is the only long distance HVDC system operational in Russia. The experimental Moscow–Kashira scheme has been shut down and the planned ±750 kV, 2400 km Ekibastuz–Tambov scheme, which would have had the longest transmission distance and highest voltage in the world at the time, was never completed because of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Waypoints
Right of way of HVDC Volgograd–Donbass, according to Google-Maps. May be imperfect due to low resolution.

Electrode Line in Russia
Incomplete as line cannot be tracked on Wikimapia through Volgograd

title: HVDC Volgograd–Donbass


text:
Yahiko, Niigata

Yahiko (弥彦村) is a village located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. , the village had an estimated population of 7,824, and a population density of 311 persons per km2. The total area of the village was 25.17 sqkm.

Geography
Yahiko is located in a coastal region of central Niigata Prefecture, but is not on the coast. Yahiko lies on the south side of Mount Yahiko. This mountain and nearby Mount Kakuda, stand alone on the Sea of Japan coast not far from Niigata City. Yahiko has one of the oldest family owned hotels in Niigata prefecture called Yamamotokan.

Surrounding municipalities

 * Niigata Prefecture
 * Nagaoka
 * Tsubame
 * Niigata

Climate
Yahiko has a Humid climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm, wet summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Yahiko is 13.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2081 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.1 °C, and lowest in January, at around 1.3 °C.

Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Yahiko has remained relatively steady over the past 50 years.

History
The area of present-day Yahiko was part of ancient Echigo Province, and developed as a settlement around Yahiko-jinja, a Shinto shrine which was established in the 8th century. The modern village was established within Nishikanbara District, Niigata on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the municipalities system. The present shrine was rebuilt in 1916. The earlier shrine buildings were destroyed by a 1912 fire which started in the village. It is the only village left in its district after the two towns from the same district merged into the city of Tsubame on March 20, 2006.

Education
Yahiko has one public elementary school and one public middle school operated by the village government, but no public high school.

Railway
JR East - Yahiko Line
 * Yahiko - Yahagi

Ropeway

 * Yahikoyama Ropeway

Highway

 * Yahiko is not on any national expressway or highway

Places

 * Yahiko Shrine
 * Yahiko Onsen (hot spring)
 * Yahiko Velodrome
 * Yahikoyama Ropeway and Skyline

Events

 * Chrysanthemum Festival (in November)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Yahiko, Niigata


text:
Titan triggerfish

The titan triggerfish, giant triggerfish or moustache triggerfish (Balistoides viridescens) is a large species of triggerfish found in lagoons and at reefs to depths of 50 m in most of the Indo-Pacific, though it is absent from Hawaii. With a length of up to 75 cm, it is the largest species of triggerfish in its range (the stone triggerfish, Pseudobalistes naufragium, from the east Pacific is larger).

Behavior
The titan triggerfish is diurnal and solitary. It feeds on sea urchins, molluscs, crustaceans, tube worms and coral. It often feeds by turning over rocks, stirring up sand and biting off pieces of branching coral. This is why other smaller fish species are often seen around it, as they feed on the detritus and smaller organisms that are stirred up. Titan triggerfish are one of a number of species of fish which can hunt and eat the crown-of-thorns starfish.

Titan triggerfish have been observed being aggressive to other fish who enter their territory.

Interaction with humans
Though titan triggerfish are usually wary of divers and snorkelers, females can be territorial and aggressive around their nests during the reproduction season, which occurs for about a week in each month (either after the full moon or new moon, depending on the population).

The nest is placed in a flat sandy area, and is defended vigorously against any intruders. The territory around the nest is roughly cone-shaped and divers who accidentally enter it may be attacked. Divers should swim horizontally away from the nest rather than upwards which would only take them further into the territory. Although bites are not venomous, the strong teeth can inflict serious injury that may require medical attention.

The threat posture includes the triggerfish facing the intruder while holding its first dorsal spine erect. It may also roll onto its side, allowing it a better look at the intruder it perceives as threatening its nest. The titan triggerfish will not always bite, but can swim at snorkellers and divers escorting them out of their territory.

The flesh of the titan triggerfish is sometimes ciguatoxic.

title: Titan triggerfish


text:
Bunsui, Niigata

Bunsui (分水町) was a town located in Nishikanbara District, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. Bunsui is now a part of the expanded city of Tsubame.

As of April 1, 2005, the town had an estimated population of 15,130. The total area was 39.61 km2.

On March 20, 2006, Bunsui, along with the town of Yoshida (also from Nishikanbara District), was merged into the expanded city of Tsubame.

The town plays host to the annual Spring Oiran Dochu festival.

Railway

 * JR logo (east).svg JR East - Echigo Line
 * Bunsui

title: Bunsui, Niigata


text:
HVDC Cross-Channel

The HVDC Cross-Channel (Interconnexion France Angleterre IFA 2000) is the 73 km high-voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnector that has operated since 1986 under the English Channel between the continental European grid at Bonningues-lès-Calais and the British electricity grid at Sellindge. The cable is also known as IFA, and should not be confused with the new IFA-2, another interconnect with France that is three times as long but only half as powerful.

The current 2,000MW link is bi-directional and the countries can import or export depending upon market demands, mostly depending upon weather conditions and availability of renewable energy on the British Isles, and French surplus of nuclear generation or demand for electric heating. It was completed in 1986, and replaced the first cross-Channel link which was a 160MW link completed in 1961 and decommissioned in 1984.

A fire in September 2021 caused the link to be removed from service. National Grid announced that half of its capacity would be restored on 20 October 2021, with full capacity being restored by October 2023.

160 MW system (1961)
The first HVDC Cross-Channel scheme was built by ASEA and went into service in 1961, between converter stations at Lydd in England (next to Dungeness Nuclear Power Station) and Echinghen, near Boulogne-sur-Mer, in France. This scheme was equipped with mercury-arc valves, each having four anodes in parallel.

In order to keep the disturbances of the magnetic compasses of passing ships as small as possible, a bipolar cable was used. The cable had a length of 65 km and was operated symmetrically at a voltage of ±100kV and a maximum current of 800amperes. The maximum transmission power of this cable was 160megawatts (MW). The cable was built by ABB. Given that the cable was laid on the surface of the seabed it was prone to being fouled by fishing nets, causing damage. Whilst repairs were undertaken there was considerable down time on the circuit resulting in a loss of trading. Indeed, by 1984 the circuit was disconnected from the Main Transmission System.

2,000 MW system (1986)
Because the first installation did not meet increasing requirements, it was replaced in 1975–1986 by a new HVDC system with a maximum transmission rating of 2,000MW between France and the United Kingdom, for which two new converter stations were built in Sellindge, between Ashford and Folkestone in Kent, England and in Bonningues-lès-Calais (Les Mandarins station), near Calais, France. Unlike most HVDC schemes, where the two converter stations are built by the same manufacturer, the two converter stations of the 2,000MW scheme were built by different manufacturers (although both have subsequently become part of the same parent company, Alstom). The Sellindge converter station was built by GEC and the Les Mandarins converter station was built by CGE Alstom.

This HVDC-link is 73 km long in route, with 70 km between the two ends. The undersea section consists of eight 46 km long 270kV submarine cables, laid between Folkestone (UK) and Sangatte (France), arranged as two fully independent 1,000MW Bipoles, each operated at a DC voltage of ±270kV. Cables are laid in pairs in four trenches so that the magnetic fields generated by the two conductors are largely cancelled. The landside parts of the link consist of 8cables with lengths of 18.5 km in England, and 6.35 km in France.

In common with the 1961 scheme, there is no provision to permit neutral current to flow through the sea. Although each station includes an earth electrode, this is used only to provide a neutral reference, and only one of the two electrodes is connected at a given time so that there can be no current flow between them.

The system was built with solid-state semiconductor thyristor valves from the outset. Initially these were air-cooled and used analogue control systems, and in 2011 and 2012 respectively, the thyristor valves of Bipole 1 and Bipole 2 were replaced by modern water-cooled thyristor valves and digital control systems supplied by Alstom.

This system remains the world's largest-capacity submarine cable HVDC system.

In November 2016, during Storm Angus, a ship dragging an anchor cut four of the eight cable components, reducing capacity by 50%. Repairs were completed by the end of February 2017. The equipment occasionally faults, causing capacity to drop: in a bad year, this might happen several times. To maintain grid frequency and power, the National Grid has a variety of frequency response assets, of which market batteries are the first to respond.

In September 2021, a major fire at the Sellindge converter station led to the shutdown of the link. National Grid initially announced that half of the link capacity would be restored within a fortnight, with full capacity being restored in March 2022. The shutdown came at a time of high prices and supply shortage in the UK electricity market, caused by low wind speeds and high prices for natural gas. On 15 October 2021, National Grid announced that half of the link capacity would be restored within the next few days, that 75% capacity would be available between October 2022 and May 2023, and that they hoped to restore full capacity by October 2023.

Significance
Since the commissioning of the 2,000MW DC link in the 1980s, the bulk of power flow through the link has been from France to Britain. However, France imports energy as needed during the winter to meet demand, or when there is low availability of hydroelectric power.

, imports of electricity from France have historically accounted for about 5% of electricity available in the UK. Imports through the interconnector have generally been around the highest possible level, given the capacity of the link. In 2006, 97.5% of the energy transfers were made from France to UK, supplying the equivalent of 3million English homes. Prior to the 2021 fire, the link availability was around 98%, which was among the best rates in the world. The continued size and duration of the flows are open to some doubt, given the growth in demand in continental Europe for clean electricity, and increasing electricity demand within France.

title: HVDC Cross-Channel


text:
Yoshida, Niigata

Yoshida (吉田町) was a town located in Nishikanbara District, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. Yoshida is now a part of the expanded city of Tsubame.

As of April 1, 2005, the town had an estimated population of 24,937. The total area was 32.00 km2.

On March 20, 2006, Yoshida, along with the town of Bunsui (also from Nishikanbara District), was merged into the expanded city of Tsubame.

Railway

 * JR logo (east).svg JR East - Echigo Line
 * Aōzu - Minami-Yoshida - Yoshida - Kita-Yoshida
 * JR logo (east).svg JR East - Yahiko Line
 * Yoshida

title: Yoshida, Niigata


text:
James King

James King, Jim King or Jimmy King may refer to:

Military

 * James King, 1st Lord Eythin (1589–1652), Scottish general in Swedish service and later in the English Civil War
 * James King (Royal Navy officer) (1750–1784), British Royal Navy captain who served under James Cook
 * James Wilson King (1818–1905), Chief Engineer of the United States Navy
 * James W. King (1842–1903), American Civil War soldier and newspaper editor
 * James C. King, former United States Army lieutenant general and former director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, 1998–2001

Politics

 * James G. King (1791–1853), American businessman and United States Representative from New Jersey
 * James King King (1806–1881), British MP for Herefordshire
 * James A. King (1832–1899), Scottish cabinet minister of the Republic of Hawaii
 * James King (Quebec politician) (1848–1900), Canadian businessman and member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec
 * James Harold King (1871–1949), physician and politician in Ontario, Canada
 * James Horace King (1873–1955), Canadian Minister of Pensions and National Health, 1928–1930
 * James Chisholm King (1886–1970), politician in Saskatchewan, Canada
 * Jim King (politician) (1939–2009), American politician, Florida state senator
 * James King (Maryland politician) (born 1974), member of the Maryland House of Delegates

Cricket

 * James King (Australian cricketer) (1851–1921), Australian cricketer
 * James King (cricketer, born 1855) (1855–?), English cricketer
 * James King (cricketer, born 1869) (1869–1948), English cricketer
 * James King (cricketer, born 1942), English cricketer

Association football

 * James King (Scottish footballer) (1906–1985), Scottish international footballer
 * James King (English footballer) (born 1996), English footballer

Basketball

 * Jim King (basketball, born 1941) (born 1941), American basketball player, former basketball coach for the University of Tulsa
 * Jim King (basketball, born 1943), American basketball player in the 1968 Olympics
 * Jimmy King (born 1973), American basketball player, member of the University of Michigan Fab Five

Rugby

 * James King (rugby league), rugby league footballer for Ireland, Barrow Raiders, and Leigh Centurions
 * James King (rugby union, born 1986), Scottish rugby union player
 * James King (rugby union, born 1987), New Zealand rugby union player
 * James King (rugby union, born 1990), Welsh rugby union player

Other sports

 * Jim King (footballer) (1873–1929), Australian rules footballer
 * Jim King (baseball) (1932–2015), American baseball player
 * Jim King (American football), American football coach
 * James King (hurdler) (born 1949), American hurdler

Entertainment

 * Jack King (animator) (1895–1958), American animator, especially with Walt Disney, whose real name was James King
 * James King (tenor) (1925–2005), American opera singer
 * Jim King (saxophonist) (1942–2012), English rock musician, member of the band Family
 * James King (bluegrass) (1958–2016), American bluegrass music singer
 * James King (film critic), British broadcast film critic
 * James King (musician), American soul musician, member of the band Fitz and The Tantrums
 * Jaime King (born 1979), American actress and model, sometimes billed as James King

Others

 * James King, 4th Baron Kingston (1693–1761), British peer
 * James King (priest) (1715–1795), Canon of Windsor and Dean of Raphoe
 * James King, 5th Earl of Kingston (1800–1869), Irish peer and barrister
 * James King (pioneer) (1800–1857), Scottish-born Australian businessman and winemaker
 * James King of William (1822–1856), American newspaper editor
 * Sir James King, 1st Baronet (1830–1911), Scottish businessman, and Lord Provost of Glasgow, 1886–89
 * James King (architect) (fl. 1860s–1892), American architect
 * James M. King (1839–1907), American Methodist minister, writer, and political activist
 * James Albert King (1864–1933), paternal grandfather of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
 * James L. King (engineer) (1922–c. 1995), British engineer
 * James Lawrence King (born 1927), United States federal judge
 * James Roger King (1927–1991), American ornithologist

Fictional

 * Jimmy King (Emmerdale), a fictional character in the British TV soap Emmerdale
 * James King, a fictional character in the U.S. TV series Last Resort

title: James King


text:
Maki, Niigata

Maki, Niigata may refer to:
 * Maki, Niigata (Kanbara) (巻町; -machi), Nishikanbara District, Niigata, Japan
 * Maki, Niigata (Kubiki) (牧村; -mura), Higashikubiki District, Niigata, Japan

title: Maki, Niigata


text:
HVDC Inter-Island

The HVDC Inter-Island link is a 610 km long, 1200 MW high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system connecting the electricity networks of the North Island and South Island of New Zealand together. It is commonly referred to as the Cook Strait cable in the media and in press releases, although the link is much longer than its Cook Strait section. The link is owned and operated by state-owned transmission company Transpower New Zealand.

The HVDC link starts in the South Island at the Benmore Hydroelectric Power Station, on the Waitaki River in Canterbury and then it travels 534 km on an overhead transmission line through inland Canterbury and Marlborough to Fighting Bay in the Marlborough Sounds. From Fighting Bay, the link travels 40 km via submarine power cables underneath Cook Strait to Oteranga Bay, near Wellington, before travelling the final 37 km on overhead lines to Haywards transmission substation in Lower Hutt.

The HVDC link first became operational in April 1965 to primarily transport electricity from the generation-rich South Island to the more populous North Island. The link originally was a bipolar 600 MW link with mercury arc valves, until the original equipment was paralleled onto a single pole (Pole 1) in 1992, and a new thyristor-based pole (Pole 2) was constructed alongside it, increasing the link's capacity to 1040 MW. The ageing Pole 1 was fully decommissioned effective 1 August 2012, and a replacement thyristor-based pole, Pole 3, was commissioned on 29 May 2013, restoring the DC link to a bipolar 1200 MW configuration.

Rationale for the link
The HVDC link is an important component of the transmission system in New Zealand. It connects the transmission grids of the two islands, and is used as an energy-balancing system, helping to match energy availability and demand in the two islands.

The two islands are geographically different – the South Island is 33 percent larger than the North Island in land area (151,000 km2 vs 114,000 km2), but the North Island has over three times the population of the South Island (0/1000000 million vs 0/1000000 million). As a consequence, the North Island has a substantially larger energy demand. However, the South Island uses more electricity per capita due to its cooler climate and the presence of the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter, which at a peak demand of 640 MW is New Zealand's largest single electricity user. In 2011, around 37.1% of the total electricity generated was consumed in the South Island, while 62.9% was consumed in the North Island. South Island generation accounted for 40.9% of the nation's electricity in 2011, nearly all (97%) from hydroelectricity, while the North Island generated the remaining 59.1% from a mixture of mainly hydroelectric, natural gas, and geothermal generation, plus smaller amount of coal and wind generation.

If all currently commissioned generation is available, both islands have enough generating capacity at peak times, without the connection between the two islands. However, the HVDC link provides benefits for customers in both the South Island and North Island:
 * The link provides the South Island consumers with access to the North Island's thermal generation resources that can support the South Island demand during times of low water storage levels and low inflows to South Island hydroelectric lakes.
 * The link provides North Island consumers with access to the South Island's large hydro generation resources that can support the North Island demand at times of peak load.

The link plays an important role in the New Zealand electricity market, and allows North and South Island generators to compete with each other, therefore driving wholesale electricity prices down.

The inter-island transmission system was designed as a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) system, despite the cost of the conversion from alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) and back again, to suit the requirements of a long transmission line and a sea crossing. The link crosses Cook Strait, between the two islands, using submarine power cables laid along the sea floor. HVDC is more suitable than AC for transmission over long distances, and particularly where submarine cable transmission is required, because it is typically more economic, and has lower energy losses, despite the high costs of the AC/DC conversion process.

Route
The HVDC Inter Island link starts at two converter stations located adjacent to Benmore Hydroelectric Power Station in the Waitaki Valley. Electricity is taken from the main Benmore switchyard, which interconnects the Benmore generators and rest of the South Island transmission grid, at 220 kV via tie-lines across the Benmore tailrace. The AC power is converted at the stations to ±350 kV HVDC for transmission

The HVDC transmission line crosses the Benmore power station tailrace and takes a route along the eastern side of the dam. The line continues north along the eastern shore of Lake Benmore, before turning north-east and then east to meet the Christchurch to Twizel HVAC line. Crossing State Highway 8 south of Fairlie, the line then turns northeast, passing between Fairlie and Geraldine. North of Geraldine to Oxford, the HVDC line broadly follows the Inland Scenic Route tourist highway through the inland Canterbury Plains, passing close to the towns of Methven, Sheffield and Oxford, before continuing northeast towards Waipara.

The HVDC line passes through Weka Pass into the Amuri district, travelling north through the region, west of Culverden, to Hanmer Springs. From here, the line turns north-east and travels through Molesworth Station into Marlborough and down the Awatere River valley, before turning north to meet State Highway 1 through the Dashwood and Weld Passes. The line travels east of Blenheim, meeting the eastern coast of the island at Cloudy Bay, and travelling up the coast into the Marlborough Sounds. The line turns east and then south-east around Port Underwood, before crossing to Fighting Bay on the coast, where the South Island cable terminal is located.

At this physical location, the lines connects to three undersea cables taking electricity underneath Cook Strait. , Pole 2 uses two of these cables, with the third cable unused waiting the commissioning of Pole 3. The cables initially head south out of Fighting Bay, before turning east towards the North Island, and then turning northeast towards the North Island cable terminal at Oteranga Bay.

From Oteranga Bay, the land-based North Island transmission line travels northeast through Mākara just west of Johnsonville. West of Ngaio, the electrode line from the North Island shore electrode at Te Hikowhenua, north of Mākara Beach, merges with the main transmission line towers for the final connection to the North Island converter station. The line turns eastwards around Churton Park, crossing to Horokiwi before turning north-east and passing through Belmont Regional Park to Haywards in northern Lower Hutt, the site of the North Island static inverter plant.

At Haywards, two converter stations receive HVDC power at ±350 kV, and convert it to alternating current at 220 kV AC. From here, the power from the Inter Island link flows to the main Haywards HVAC substation, where it is distributed to the Wellington urban area, or is transmitted north to the rest of the North Island grid.

Technical description

The New Zealand Inter-Island HVDC link is a long distance bipolar HVDC "Classic" transmission scheme that uses overhead lines and submarine cables to connect between the South and North Islands. It uses thyristor-based line-commutated converters at each end of the link for rectifying and inverting between AC and DC. The link includes ground electrode stations that enable the use of earth return current. This permits operation with unbalanced current between the two poles, and monopolar operation when one pole is out of service.

Converter stations
The converter stations for each pole, at each end of the link include:
 * converter valve hall, cooling system and control building
 * converter transformers
 * 220 kV AC switchyard equipment and connections
 * 220 kV AC harmonic filters
 * 350 kV DC switchyard equipment, including DC smoothing reactor

The converter valves are twelve-pulse converters, arranged as three water-cooled quadrivalve assemblies. Both Pole 2 and Pole 3 use a design that suspends the quadrivalves from the roof of the valve hall. This provides superior seismic performance compared with a ground mounted arrangement, especially in New Zealand's highly seismic environment. There are three single-phase converter transformers for each converter valve (plus one spare transformer), and each transformer has two secondary windings connected to the valve.

Each converter station requires power factor correction equipment to generate reactive power for the converters and provide voltage support to the surrounding AC grid. At the Benmore converter station, reactive power is provided by the generators at Benmore Dam. At the Haywards converter station, reactive power and power factor correction is provided by eight synchronous condensers, two shunt capacitors, two shunt reactors, and one static synchronous compensator (STATCOM).

Details of the converter station equipment and ratings are given in the table below:

Submarine cables
The three submarine power cables installed in 1991 are each rated to carry 1430 A continuously at 350 kV operating voltage. They are constructed with a compacted multi-strand copper conductor as a central core, with mass-impregnated paper insulation surrounded by a lead sheath. Two layers of galvanised steel wire armour provides strength and mechanical protection. The outer layer of the cable is a serving made from polypropylene rope and the outer diameter is approximately 130 mm. The cables have a 30-minute overload capacity of 1600 A.

To ensure security of the link's submarine power cables, a seven-kilometre wide Cable Protection Zone (CPZ) is enforced where the cables cross Cook Strait. Vessels are not permitted to anchor or fish in this area, and the area is routinely patrolled by sea and air. Anyone found anchoring or fishing in the area is liable for fines up to $100,000 and forfeiture of their vessel – more if a cable is subsequently damaged.

HVDC transmission line

The transmission line was designed and built by the New Zealand Electricity Department, and was completed in January 1965. The original construction of the line included the erection of 1623 steel lattice towers. In some South Island sections, the line reaches an altitude of 1280 metres. The longest span is 1119 m, near Port Underwood, close to the Fighting Bay cable terminal station.

The line was originally designed for operation at ±250 kV. During the DC Hybrid link project of 1989 to 1992, the transmission line was reinsulated with DC fog type porcelain insulator units, to enable operation at 350 kV. There are 15 units per insulator string in the inland parts of the route, and 33 units per insulator string in the coastal parts of the route that are exposed to salt condensation. The insulator strings in the coastal portions are around 5 m long.

The transmission line insulators support a pair of ACSR conductors on each side of the towers. The conductors are each 39.4 mm in diameter, and are spaced 432 mm apart.

The HVDC line has a continuous overhead earthwire for lightning protection, except for a 21 km section at the Haywards end, where the line is shielded by the electrode line conductors. A 13 km section of the North Island HVDC line uses an overhead earthwire containing a fibre optic core (OPGW), and a further 169 km section of OPGW is installed the South Island line.

About 20 new towers were constructed in 1992 to reroute the HVDC line north of Johnsonville to make way for new residential development. This was known as the Churton Park deviation.

Around 92.5 percent (1503) of the towers on the line in 2010 were identified as being original, with the remaining towers having been replaced due to line deviations, collapse, or corrosion.

Following the DC Hybrid Link project, the line was rated to carry 2000 amperes continuously on each pole, at an operating voltage of 350 kV HVDC.

Earth electrode stations
The connection between the North Island converter station and earth uses a shore electrode station located at Te Hikowhenua, approximately 25 km from Haywards. Following upgrades carried out during the DC Hybrid Link project, the electrode station is capable of carrying 2400 A continuously. Forty electrode cells are buried along an 800 m length of a stony beach. Each electrode cell consists of a high silicon-chromium iron electrode, suspended in a vertical porous concrete cylinder. The cells are surrounded by selected and graded stones and geotextile layers to allow seawater ingress, but prevent the buildup of silt. The electrode to ground resistance is 0.122 Ω.

The South Island ground electrode station is located at Bog Roy, 7.6 km from Benmore. It comprises buried electrode arms arranged in a star configuration over a site of approximately 1 km2. Each electrode arm is a 40 mm mild steel rod buried in a coke bed of around 0.26 m2 cross sectional area, in a 1.5 m deep trench. The electrode to ground resistance is 0.35 Ω. A small transmission line carries a twin conductor electrode circuit from the Benmore converter station site to the South Island land electrode at Bog Roy, which in conjunction with the shore electrode in the North Island, allows one pole to operate using earth return when the other pole is out of service.

Transmission faults and outages
Like all transmission systems, the HVDC Inter-Island link is not immune to failures. The importance of the link means that an unplanned outage can have major implications for the entire New Zealand electricity system, potentially causing nationwide frequency deviation (underfrequency in the receiving island, overfrequency in the other island), electricity shortages in the receiving island, and a spike in wholesale electricity prices. The most catastrophic situation is a simultaneous bipole outage at high transfer when there is low to medium generation in the receiving island—instantaneous reserve generation and load shedding systems in the receiving island would not be able to come online fast enough to prevent the frequency dropping, resulting in cascading failure and outage of the entire receiving island.

Planned outages of the link are required occasionally to carry out maintenance that is not possible while the system is live. Maintenance outages are planned well in advance to minimise the effects – they are usually carried out in summer when national electricity demand is at its lowest, and on only one pole at a time, with the other pole remaining in operation providing half of the full two-pole capacity, using the earth electrodes providing a path for return current through the ground.

Notable faults and outages on the HVDC Inter-Island link:
 * 1973 – an electrical fault occurred in the shore joint of Cable 1 at Fighting Bay.
 * August 1975 – A strong wind storm caused a string of seven transmission towers to collapse and damage the line. The link took five days to repair.
 * 1976 – A fault occurred at the Cable 1 undersea joint, 15.5 km from the South Island end at a depth of 120 metres. The joint was repaired in 1977.
 * 1980 – Cable 3 failed at the Fighting Bay shore joint.
 * 1981 – A gas leak on Cable 1 occurred at Oteranga Bay. It was repaired in the 1982/83 summer.
 * 1988 – Cable 2's Oteranga Bay end joint exploded, spilling insulating oil into the switchyard.
 * 2004 – In January, three HVDC towers collapsed as a result of extreme winds, and in August the line voltage had to be reduced for long periods because of insulation flashovers caused by severe salt pollution at the cable station at Oteranga Bay. In October, a fault occurred in one of three Cook Strait cables that reduced the Pole 1 capacity from 540 MW to 386 MW. Repairs took almost six months.
 * 19 June 2006 – The link experienced an unplanned outage just before the evening peak period on one of the coldest days of the year. With four North Island power stations out for service and an outage of Tauranga's ripple load control equipment, even with the reserve Whirinaki Power Station called upon, the North Island experienced electricity shortages and Transpower subsequently declared a nationwide Grid Emergency at 5:34 pm. The link was restored shortly after the emergency was declared.
 * 28 August 2008 – A transmission tower in the Marlborough Sounds was found buckled after its foundations slipped. The tower was reinforced with steel guy ropes until it could be replaced, as the link couldn't be shut down without causing widespread power shortages in the South Island.
 * 12 November 2013 – During the commissioning of the new two-pole control systems, a test to assess the control's response to a trip on a 220 kV line out of Haywards during high north flow caused three filter banks at Benmore to trip off the grid. The HVDC controls automatically cut northbound transfer from 1000 MW to 140 MW, causing automatic underfrequency load shedding (AUFLS) systems to deploy in the North Island, and blacking out thousands of customers. A software bug was found to be the cause of the filter bank trips.
 * 17 August 2021 - The HVDC transmission line failed in the Weka Pass region, leading to conductors of the Pole 2 circuit falling across State Highway 7. Transpower issued a Grid Emergency Notice later in the day, advising that there was insufficient generation and transmission capacity to meet the forecast evening peak load in the North Island. Severe weather conditions delayed the repair and the return to service until 26 August.

Planning
The initial vision for electricity transmission between the South and North Islands was developed by Bill Latta, the Chief Engineer of the State Hydroelectric Department. In 1950, he prepared a paper on the future of the North Island's electric power supply and he drew attention to the projected growth of the load and the limited potential for more hydroelectric generation development on the North Island. Latta's vision was to build more hydroelectric generating capacity in the South Island, where there was still significant opportunities for new schemes, and to transmit the power to the southern half of the North Island to meet the increasing demand.

In 1951, the cable manufacturing company British Insulated Callender's Cables (BICC) advised the State Hydroelectric Department that a cable crossing of Cook Strait was possible, but difficult, since there was no precedent for installing power cables in such difficult marine conditions.

The development of high power mercury arc valve converters in the 1950s led to the development of several HVDC transmission schemes in other countries. This demonstrated that a long distance, high power HVDC transmission scheme was feasible in principle.

In 1956, the Government appointed BICC to undertake detailed investigations of the practicality and cost of a Cook Strait cable crossing. In December of that year, BICC reported that the project was "thoroughly practicable".

In parallel with the technical investigations for cables underneath Cook Strait, the Minister responsible for the State Hydroelectric Department appointed a committee of key stakeholders to report on the options for power supply to New Zealand as a whole, not just the North Island. In 1957, the committee recommended that work commence on a large hydroelectric power station on the Waitaki River at Benmore, and that approval in principle should be given for linking the North and South Island's power systems.

Recommendations were also received from the Swedish company ASEA (today part of the ABB), about the technical aspects of the HVDC converter stations.

The unique planning considerations for the overall proposal included:
 * The hydroelectric generators at Benmore would need to be capable of absorbing the harmonic currents that would be created by the operation of the mercury arc converters.
 * The Benmore generators were proposed to have an operating voltage of 16 kV, which was a new high for New Zealand hydroelectric generators at the time.
 * The 16 kV circuit breakers required at Benmore would be state of the art.
 * The mercury arc valves would be larger than any previously constructed, and would require water-cooled cathodes.
 * The overhead HVDC transmission line would be one of the longest and most difficult built in New Zealand up to that time.
 * The Cook Strait submarine cables would have to be specially designed for the seabed and tidal conditions, and require special armouring at the Oteranga Bay end, of a kind that had not been used before.

In 1958, BICC laid two 0.8 km trial lengths of cable off Oteranga Bay in Cook Strait to demonstrate their ability to resist the abrasion, bending and vibration caused by conditions on the seabed. These trial lengths were recovered and inspected in 1960, and by October that year, BICC reported that the trial had been successful and that the prototype cable would provide good service underneath Cook Strait.

In the period 1958 to 1960, some differing views were offered to Government about the most appropriate power developments for the country as a whole, and there were reservations about the risks involved in the planned Cook Strait cable crossing.

However, in March 1961, against a background of increasing urgency in meeting the forecast demand, the Government approved the project. A NZ£6.5 million contract was placed with ASEA for the design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of the converter plant at Benmore and Haywards, and a NZ£2.75 million contract was placed with BICC for the manufacture, delivery, laying and testing of the Cook Strait submarine cables.

Construction
The HVDC inter-island link was designed and built between 1961 and 1965 for the New Zealand Electricity Department. The major equipment suppliers were ASEA and British Insulated Callender's Cables. The original Cook Strait cables were installed in 1964, from the cable laying ship Photinia.

When it was completed, the New Zealand HVDC link was the world's longest HVDC transmission scheme, with the highest power rating, and the largest undersea power cables. The terminal stations at each end of HVDC link used large mercury-arc rectifiers and inverters – 1960s technology – to convert between AC and DC. The South Island converter station was established at the Benmore hydroelectric power station in the Waitaki Valley. The North Island converter station was built at Haywards in the Hutt Valley near Wellington.

The HVDC transmission line that connects Benmore and Haywards converter stations has an overall length of 610 kilometres. The overhead transmission line is supported by 1649 transmission towers and has a total route length of 570 km. The submarine cables underneath Cook Strait are 40 km long.

Until it was upgraded in 1993, the HVDC Inter-Island link had normal operating voltages of ±250 kV, and a maximum power transmission capacity of about 600 MW.

The HVDC link was originally designed to transfer power northwards from Benmore to Haywards. In 1976, the control system of the original scheme was modified to allow power to be sent in the reverse direction, from Haywards to Benmore.

Engineering heritage status
The original HVDC link was recognised as a significant part of New Zealand's engineering heritage by the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand, (now Engineering New Zealand), during the "Engineering to 1990" project, which helped to celebrate the country's sesquicentenary in 1990.

The Hybrid Upgrade Project
In 1987, the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand began investigations to find the best means of upgrading the inter-island link. A hybrid upgrade was chosen over total replacement, for economic reasons. The term "hybrid" was adopted because the increase in capacity was to be obtained through a combination of voltage and current upgrades. The upgrade project involved continued use of the existing mercury arc valve converter equipment alongside new solid-state thyristor converter stations. The scope of work included:
 * Providing three new HVDC submarine cables underneath Cook Strait, to supplement and ultimately replace the original cables. Each new cable was rated at 350 kV, 1430 A, giving a maximum power capacity of 500 MW per cable. The three new power cables were installed in 1991 by the cable laying vessel Skagerrak.
 * New cable terminal stations at Fighting Bay and Oteranga Bay
 * The existing mercury arc valve converters at each end of the link were reconfigured to operate in parallel at each station (they had previously operated with opposite electrical polarity). They were redesignated as Pole 1.
 * The operating voltage of the mercury arc valve converters was increased from the original 250 kV to 270 kV
 * New HVDC thyristor converter stations were added at each end of the link. These had an operating voltage of 350 kV, and were designated as Pole 2.
 * The reinsulating of the entire HVDC overhead transmission line to increase its rating to 350 kV. Work on transmission structures and conductors was also carried out to ensure that the line conductors could operate at up to 2000 A on each Pole.

The Pole 2 converter stations and new submarine cables were commissioned in March 1991.

The upgrade brought the total converter station capacity to 1348 MW (648+700 MW), however the link was restricted to 1240 MW due to the overhead transmission line rating's restricting Pole 1's operating capacity to 540 MW. After the retirement of the last of the original submarine cables, the overall HVDC link transfer capability was restricted further to 1040 MW due to the single Pole 2 cable underneath Cook Strait.

In its Asset Management Plan 2018, Transpower indicated that in the regulatory period 2020-2025 it planned significant expenditure to extend the life or replace ageing equipment in the Pole 2 converter stations that is near the end of its original 30-year design life.

Decommissioning of Pole 1
On 21 September 2007, the original Pole 1 mercury-arc converter stations were shut down "indefinitely". However, in December 2007, Transpower announced that one-half of the capacity of Pole 1 would be returned to "warm standby" service before the winter of 2008 in order to meet the demand for power in the North Island if needed. The remaining half-pole equipment of Pole 1 was to be decommissioned.

Transpower also announced in November 2007 that by December 2007, it would increase the south to north power transmission capacity of Pole 2 from 500 MW to 700 MW. This was done by reconfiguring the three operational submarine cables. One of the two cables previously connected to Pole 1 was transferred to Pole 2.

On 13 March 2008, Transpower announced that work had been completed to restore 50% of the capacity of Pole 1 to service at times when the demand for power on the North Island peaked. Several mercury arc rectifiers were cannibalized from the Konti-Skan link between Denmark and Sweden for this restoration. The energy transfer on Pole 1 was strictly limited to the northbound direction, to reduce the stress and strain on the aging converter system.

In May 2009, Transpower placed the remaining capacity of Pole 1 back into service for a short period, at a limited capacity of 200 MW, in response to a temporary loss of capacity on Pole 2.

The decommissioning of half of Pole 1 and the operational restrictions placed on the remaining Pole 1 capacity led to the HVDC link operating mostly in monopolar mode, using Pole 2 alone. In 2010, Transpower reported that continuous operation in monopolar mode has caused the HVDC link to act as a galvanic cell with the earth, causing Benmore's Bog Roy earth electrodes to erode as they acted as an anode, and causing the buildup of magnesium and calcium hydroxide deposits on Hayward's Te Hikowhenua shore electrodes as they acted as a cathode. Additional replacement and maintenance work was required.

On 1 August 2012, Transpower decommissioned the remaining half of the Pole 1 mercury arc valve converter stations at Benmore and Haywards, after 47 years in service. The Inter Island link at the time was the last HVDC system in the world with mercury arc valve converters in operational service.

The Pole 3 Project
In May 2008, Transpower submitted an investment proposal to the Electricity Commission for the replacement of the old mercury arc valve Pole 1 converter stations with new thyristor converter stations. In July 2008, the Electricity Commission announced its intention to approve the project.

This project involved the construction of new converter stations designated as Pole 3, to operate at +350 kV 700 MW, matching the existing Pole 2 (−350 kV, 700 MW). Site works on the $672 million project were formally commenced on 19 April 2010, when Minister of Energy Gerry Brownlee turned the first sod. The new converter stations were to be commissioned by April 2012, but in May 2011, Transpower announced that commissioning was delayed until December 2012 because of difficulties being experienced by the manufacturer.

Work involved in replacing Pole 1 with the new Pole 3 converter stations included:
 * New valve halls adjacent to the Pole 2 valve halls at both Benmore and Haywards, each containing the thyristors converters
 * New transformers connecting the valve halls to the 220 kV buses at both Benmore and Haywards
 * Connecting the Pole 3 thyristors to the existing Pole 1 lines at both Benmore and Haywards
 * Connecting the Pole 3 thyristors to the existing electrode lines at both Benmore and Haywards
 * Switching the number 5 Cook Strait cable from Pole 2 back to the Pole 1/3.
 * New 220 kV filters on the 220 kV buses at both Benmore and Haywards
 * New transformers connecting the four synchronous condensers C7 to C10 to the 110 kV bus at Haywards
 * New 5th and 7th harmonic filters connecting to the 110 kV bus at Haywards.
 * Removal of the existing converter transformers connecting the Pole 1 mercury arc valves and two of the synchronous condensers to the 110 kV bus at Haywards.
 * Removal of all remaining mercury arc valve Pole 1 equipment at both Benmore and Haywards.

The decommissioning of Pole 1 was scheduled for July 2012, allowing works to switch the existing lines over Pole 3 to occur, and to allow testing of the new pole to occur during the summer months where electricity demand and therefore inter-island electricity transfer is low. The new Pole 3 was able to operate at 700 MW from commissioning, but due to inadequate voltage support at the Haywards end of the link, Pole 2 and 3 combined transfer was limited to 1000 MW. After the commissioning of a new static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) at Haywards in January 2014, Pole 3 was able to operate at its full capacity with Pole 2 in operation (1200 MW total transfer).

Pole 2 control system replacement
Pole 2 was commissioned in 1992 with HVDC control systems using late 1980s technology. After 20 years in service, the control systems are nearing the end of their useful life, are technologically obsolete, and are incompatible with the new Pole 3 control systems, making bipole control impossible.

In late 2013, Transpower took Pole 2 out of service for four weeks to allow the control systems to be replaced with new systems identical to those used in Pole 3, and to install a new bipole control system to control both poles. This was followed by three months of testing the new control systems. Pole 3 continued to operate during the outage and most of the testing in a monopolar configuration with the earth electrodes.

Line maintenance
During the time that Pole 1 was removed from service for replacement with Pole 3, maintenance and remedial work was undertaken on some sections of the transmission line. Work included:
 * Replacing around 100 transmission towers in the South Island to fix clearance issues
 * Replacing some conductor lengths in the North Island as they approach the end of their useful life
 * Reinforcing some North Island transmission towers.

Benmore generator transformers
The original design of the inter-island link at Benmore was integrated with the design of the 540 MW Benmore hydroelectric power station. The 16 kV generator busbars in the power station were the point of connection between the HVDC link and the South Island grid. The power from the six Benmore generators could flow directly from the 16 kV busbars to the HVDC link via converter transformers, with the interconnecting transformers connecting to the Benmore 220 kV busbar to export or import electricity from the rest of the South Island. The design of the power station was optimised with the HVDC link, and the interconnecting transformers were designed with a significantly lower rating than the maximum output of the Benmore generators, because so much of the generator output power would normally flow to the HVDC link.

Following Transpower's decommissioning of the original Pole 1 equipment, there was no longer any direct connection between the generator 16 kV busbars and the HVDC link, and the limited capacity of the Benmore interconnecting transformers would have constrained the maximum output of the station. In co-ordination with the Transpower programme for decommissioning of the Pole 1 equipment, Benmore owner Meridian Energy replaced the interconnecting transformers with new generator transformers. The six generators were reconnected to the 220 kV national grid via six new generator circuit breakers and three 220/16/16 kV three winding transformers. The new transformers each connect two generators, via two 16 kV secondary windings.

Cook Strait cables
In 2024, the Commerce Commission approved a proposal from Transpower to upgrade the capacity of the HVDC link by adding a fourth Cook Strait cable and additional reactive support at Haywards. The new investment would enable an increase in maximum HVDC capacity to 1,400MW. The upgrade was approved as a contingency, where the timing would depend upon triggers such as the exit of the aluminium smelter from Tiwai Point, developments in the load and generation forecasts, and Transpower demonstrating a net positive market benefit from the investment.

Transpower stated that the existing submarine cables would reach end-of-life in the early 2030s and would cost around $400 million to replace.

Site locations

 * Haywards HVDC Converter Station: -41.15145°N, 174.98169°W
 * Te Hikowhenua deviation line take-off point: -41.23417°N, 174.75861°W
 * Te Hikowhenua Shore Electrode Station: -41.20778°N, 174.71972°W
 * Oteranga Bay Cable Terminal Station: -41.29361°N, 174.63°W
 * Fighting Bay Cable Terminal Station: -41.3098°N, 174.202°W
 * Bog Roy Land Electrode Station: -44.574°N, 170.099°W
 * Benmore HVDC Converter Station: -44.56528°N, 170.19°W

title: HVDC Inter-Island


text:
List of colonial governors of Angola

This is a list of European (Portuguese and Dutch) colonial administrators responsible for the territory of Portuguese Angola, an area equivalent to modern-day Republic of Angola.

List
(Dates in italics indicate de facto continuation of office)

For continuation after independence, see: List of presidents of Angola

title: List of colonial governors of Angola


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Andy Davidson

If we don't know any more than this about him, is he worth an article? Deb 11:34, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * !noteworthy. kill -9. - UtherSRG 14:41, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Well, in Google searches he's usually the first name having to do with Worms history. However, it seems like everything notable about him could be just as easily summed up in a sentence or two on the Worms (game) article. If more data can be found about him, I'd say he has potential. But if not, I vote to delete and put this info in the Worms article. - Eisnel 17:10, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Relevant info is already in Worms (game). Just delete. -- Cyrius|✎ 00:53, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)


text:
Nishikawa, Niigata

Nishikawa (西川町) was a town located in Nishikanbara District, Niigata Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 12,277 and a density of 495.84 persons per km2. The total area was 24.76 km2.

On March 21, 2005, Nishikawa, along with the cities of Niitsu, Shirone and Toyosaka, the towns of Kameda, Kosudo and Yokogoshi (all from Nakakanbara District), and the villages of Ajikata, Iwamuro, Katahigashi, Nakanokuchi and Tsukigata (all from Nishikanbara District), was merged into the expanded city of Niigata. As of April 1, 2007, the area is part of the Nishi-ku ward.

title: Nishikawa, Niigata


text:
Robert Newton (hurdler)

Robert Alan Newton (born 10 May 1981 in Nottingham, England) is a British hurdling athlete. As of 2004, he was Britain's number one sprint hurdler. However, competing for Team GB at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Newton failed to qualify for the second round of the 110 m hurdles competition. He was the only openly gay British Olympian that year.

After not racing at all in 2005, Newton transitioned to the 400 metre hurdles along with the 110 metre hurdles in 2006, achieving a 51.88 personal best in that event. He has no recorded races since 2006. In 2012, he worked as a sports massage therapist.

National titles

 * 1997: Amateur Athletics Association U17 400m hurdles gold medal winner
 * 1999: English Schools' 110m hurdles gold medal winner
 * 1999: AAA U20 110m hurdles gold medal winner
 * 2000: AAA U20 110m hurdles silver medalist
 * 2001: AAA U23 110m hurdles gold medal winner
 * 2003: Inter-Countries 110m hurdles gold medal winner
 * 2004: British National Championships 110m hurdles gold medal winner

Personal bests

 * 110 m hurdles Personal Best: 13.36 in 2004
 * In the UK All-time Top Ten with a 60m hurdles personal best of 7.69, in the 2004 Norwich Union Indoor Trials.

title: Robert Newton (hurdler)


text:
Ajikata, Niigata

Ajikata (味方村) was a village located in Nishikanbara District, Niigata Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2005, the village had an estimated population of 4,506 and a density of 312.05 persons per km2. The total area was 14.44 km2.

On March 21, 2005, Ajikata, along with the cities of Niitsu, Shirone and Toyosaka, the towns of Kameda, Kosudo and Yokogoshi (all from Nakakanbara District), the town of Nishikawa, and the villages of Iwamuro, Katahigashi, Nakanokuchi and Tsukigata (all from Nishikanbara District), was merged into the expanded city of Niigata. As of April 1, 2007, the area is part of the Minami-ku ward.

title: Ajikata, Niigata


text:
HVDC Italy–Corsica–Sardinia

The HVDC Italy–Corsica–Sardinia (also called SACOI; Sardinia–Corsica–Italy) is an HVDC interconnection used for the exchange of electric energy between the Italian mainland, Corsica and Sardinia. It is unusual, having more than two converter stations as part of a single HVDC system, and (as of 2012) is one of only two multi-terminal HVDC systems in operation in the world (the other multi-terminal scheme being the Quebec – New England Transmission system linking northeastern United States with Quebec in Canada).

The scheme is a monopole using a mixture of overhead line and submarine cable for the 200 kV high voltage conductor, and sea return for the neutral current. The overhead lines and submarine cables are duplicated, with both circuits being installed on the same towers.

The scheme was constructed in three phases.

Converter stations
When originally completed in 1968 by English Electric, the scheme comprised two converter stations, at San Dalmazio in Tuscany on the Italian mainland, which was situated close to a production area and offered a connection to two 220 kV lines, and Codrongianos on Sardinia. Each converter station was rated at 200 kV, 200 MW and consisted of two 6-pulse converter bridges in series. Normal operation was with both bridges in service but the scheme could be operated at 50% of rated voltage and power by bypassing one converter group at each end, to allow maintenance to be carried out.

Each 6-pulse converter bridge consisted of 6 main mercury-arc valves plus a 7th for high-speed bypass operations. Each valve was rated at 1000 A dc and had four anode columns in parallel, with air cooling used for both the anodes and cathodes of the valve.

The original scheme was commissioned during 1967 and put into commercial operation in January 1968.

The mercury arc valves were as well in San Dalmazio as in Codrongianos situated in a hall with a length of 60 metres, a width of 20 metres and a height of 15 metres. The valves are still in these halls, however the mercury was removed, after the decommissioning of the mercury arc system in 1992.

Transmission lines and cables
The scheme consists of three overhead line sections: one on the Italian mainland with a length of 22 km, one on Corsica with a length of 156 km and one on Sardinia with a length of 86 km. The overhead line sections use twin conductors (each rated at 1000 A dc) connected in parallel. Each aluminium conductor has a cross section of 628 mm2 in Sardinia and Italy, and 755 mm2 on Corsica.

In addition to this, there are two submarine cable sections: 105 km between Italy and Corsica and 16 km between Corsica and Sardinia. The conductor cross-sections are 1080 mm2 on land and 420 mm2 for the submarine lengths.

Sea electrodes
The scheme was designed to export power from coal-fired power stations on Sardinia to the Italian mainland, and thus was only required to operate in one direction. Although the converter stations are inherently capable of operating in either direction of power transmission, advantage was taken of the unidirectional power-flow requirement to economise on the design of the sea electrodes. The sea return current enters the sea at the Sardinian end (anode) and leaves the sea at the mainland end (cathode). The mainland electrode consists of bare copper (a section of insulated copper cable with the insulation stripped off), which would corrode rapidly if used as an anode but suffers no degradation when used as a cathode. However, the anode electrode on Sardinia required a more sophisticated design using platinum-coated titanium pipe, subdivided into 30 sub-electrodes, in order to prevent corrosion.

Corsica tap (1988)
In 1988 a third converter station, rated at 50 MW, along with a reversible ground electrode, was installed at Lucciana on Corsica, making the scheme into a multi-terminal scheme for the first time. In order to allow power to be either imported into or exported from Corsica (even though the direction of power flow is always from Sardinia to Italy), the Lucciana converter station was equipped with high-speed changeover switchgear.

Unlike the two original converters, the Lucciana converter station was built with air-insulated, air-cooled thyristor valves, supplied by CGE Alstom

SACOI 2 - 1992 upgrade
In 1992 the mercury arc converters at Codrongianos and San Dalmazio were decommissioned and two new converters stations were built, using air-cooled, air-insulated thyristor valves similar to those supplied for the connection at Lucciana. At the Sardinian end, the new converter station was built next to the existing station but at the mainland end a new converter station was built at Suvereto, as this site offered in opposite to San Dalmazio an interconnection to the 380 kV grid. At the same time, the rating of the scheme was increased to 300 MW, keeping the same voltage of 200 kV. As well as in Suvereto as in Codrongianos, the converters are situated in halls with a length of 38 metres, a width of 15 metres and a height of 11 metres.

SACOI 3
It is planned to replace the existing scheme with a bipolar system with a transmission rate of 400 MW called SACOI 3. It will also operate with a voltage of 200 kV. While the overhead lines can be used without modification, the underground and underwater cables have to be replaced for the higher transmission rate. Two new converters will also be built at the existing sites in Suvereto and Codrongianos.

Public consultation for the project took place in 2023.

Waypoints

 * Italy Mainland
 * 43.05534°N, 10.68961°W
 * 43.05676°N, 10.68044°W
 * 43.02475°N, 10.63681°W
 * 43.02271°N, 10.63247°W
 * 43.02083°N, 10.63256°W
 * 43.02085°N, 10.63256°W
 * 43.0185°N, 10.62753°W
 * 42.99063°N, 10.58566°W
 * 42.97468°N, 10.55911°W
 * 42.95895°N, 10.51804°W
 * 42.94229°N, 10.51055°W
 * 42.94015°N, 10.50905°W
 * 42.93959°N, 10.50815°W
 * 42.93512°N, 10.49952°W

 * Electrode Line on Italian Mainland
 * 42.99063°N, 10.58566°W
 * 42.99315°N, 10.58057°W
 * 43.00458°N, 10.55489°W
 * 43.00549°N, 10.55285°W
 * 43.01739°N, 10.53489°W
 * 43.01915°N, 10.52379°W

 * Corsica
 * 42.66159°N, 9.42599°W
 * 42.55511°N, 9.41969°W
 * 42.53623°N, 9.42344°W
 * 42.52857°N, 9.45162°W
 * 42.52645°N, 9.45106°W
 * 42.52242°N, 9.44796°W
 * 42.51924°N, 9.4442°W
 * 42.51464°N, 9.441°W
 * 42.51151°N, 9.44037°W
 * 42.48826°N, 9.46357°W
 * 42.43237°N, 9.50689°W
 * 42.40283°N, 9.52122°W
 * 42.37009°N, 9.51354°W
 * 42.31624°N, 9.51934°W
 * 42.11729°N, 9.37264°W
 * 42.08125°N, 9.35433°W
 * 42.00647°N, 9.34309°W
 * 41.96819°N, 9.35036°W
 * 41.93487°N, 9.34912°W
 * 41.83319°N, 9.38605°W
 * 41.786°N, 9.38499°W
 * 41.73565°N, 9.37011°W
 * 41.71879°N, 9.34544°W
 * 41.67722°N, 9.30469°W
 * 41.6494°N, 9.28438°W
 * 41.63172°N, 9.26363°W
 * 41.60955°N, 9.24428°W
 * 41.5924°N, 9.23807°W
 * 41.58708°N, 9.23575°W
 * 41.55392°N, 9.22414°W
 * 41.49935°N, 9.18509°W
 * 41.47926°N, 9.18073°W
 * 41.44165°N, 9.17694°W
 * 41.43814°N, 9.17815°W
 * 41.4087°N, 9.19669°W
 * 41.39521°N, 9.21206°W
 * 41.3872°N, 9.21442°W
 * 41.37281°N, 9.20514°W
 * 41.37136°N, 9.2028°W

 * Electrode Line in Corsica
 * 42.52645°N, 9.45106°W
 * 42.52691°N, 9.45566°W ( Start of underground cable)
 * 42.52711°N, 9.45637°W ( End of underground cable)
 * 42.52781°N, 9.45879°W
 * 42.52845°N, 9.46053°W
 * 42.52906°N, 9.4612°W
 * 42.53158°N, 9.46292°W
 * 42.53173°N, 9.4641°W
 * 42.53172°N, 9.46515°W
 * 42.53215°N, 9.46665°W
 * 42.53421°N, 9.46932°W
 * 42.53506°N, 9.47285°W
 * 42.53589°N, 9.47648°W
 * 42.53623°N, 9.47741°W
 * 42.53691°N, 9.481°W ( Start of underground cable)
 * 42.54284°N, 9.49681°W ( End of underground cable)
 * 42.55963°N, 9.51228°W
 * 42.55935°N, 9.51568°W

 * Sardinia
 * 41.24706°N, 9.182°W
 * 41.24201°N, 9.17819°W
 * 41.23174°N, 9.1774°W
 * 41.22408°N, 9.18384°W
 * 41.20126°N, 9.2046°W
 * 41.19563°N, 9.2088°W
 * 41.17644°N, 9.23135°W
 * 41.17211°N, 9.23767°W
 * 41.17136°N, 9.23726°W
 * 41.16551°N, 9.2381°W
 * 41.14546°N, 9.23416°W
 * 41.12578°N, 9.22595°W
 * 41.06846°N, 9.20215°W
 * 41.03837°N, 9.1897°W
 * 41.02874°N, 9.18028°W
 * 41.01119°N, 9.17062°W
 * 41.00343°N, 9.15966°W
 * 40.99665°N, 9.15354°W
 * 40.97451°N, 9.12764°W
 * 40.65439°N, 8.71433°W
 * 40.92337°N, 9.09952°W
 * 40.91692°N, 9.09635°W
 * 40.89936°N, 9.08427°W
 * 40.89814°N, 9.08264°W
 * 40.8783°N, 9.05656°W
 * 40.86862°N, 9.03539°W
 * 40.85584°N, 9.00928°W
 * 40.85583°N, 9.00746°W
 * 40.85408°N, 9.00368°W
 * 40.84401°N, 8.98161°W
 * 40.81472°N, 8.948°W
 * 40.80768°N, 8.93795°W
 * 40.79495°N, 8.91995°W
 * 40.78502°N, 8.90717°W
 * 40.73657°N, 8.84496°W
 * 40.68886°N, 8.79305°W
 * 40.67767°N, 8.78098°W
 * 40.65872°N, 8.74557°W
 * 40.65442°N, 8.71437°W
 * 40.65231°N, 8.71504°W

 * Electrode Line in Sardinia
 * 40.87935°N, 8.63354°W
 * 40.87504°N, 8.63624°W
 * 40.81497°N, 8.65881°W
 * 40.79778°N, 8.66857°W
 * 40.78394°N, 8.67369°W
 * 40.7363°N, 8.69733°W
 * 40.65736°N, 8.71453°W
 * 40.65601°N, 8.71547°W
 * 40.65496°N, 8.71578°W
 * 40.65442°N, 8.71437°W

title: HVDC Italy–Corsica–Sardinia


text:
Katahigashi, Niigata

Katahigashi (潟東村) was a village located in Nishikanbara District, Niigata Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the village had an estimated population of 6,347 and a density of 264.90 persons per km2. The total area was 23.96 km2.

On March 21, 2005, Katahigashi, along with the cities of Niitsu, Shirone and Toyosaka, the towns of Kameda, Kosudo and Yokogoshi (all from Nakakanbara District), the town of Nishikawa, and the villages of Ajikata, Iwamuro, Nakanokuchi and Tsukigata (all from Nishikanbara District), was merged into the expanded city of Niigata. As of April 1, 2007, the area is part of the Nishi-ku ward.

title: Katahigashi, Niigata


text:
Aleksandr Petrov (animator)

Aleksandr Konstantinovich Petrov (also Alexander or Alexandre) (Александр Константинович Петров) (born 17 July 1957 in Prechistoye, Yaroslavl Oblast) is a Russian animator and animation director.

Biography
Petrov was born in the village of Prechistoye (Yaroslavl Oblast) and lives in Yaroslavl. He studied art at VGIK (state institute of cinema and TV) and was a disciple of Yuriy Norshteyn at Moscow's Advanced School for Screenwriters and Directors.

After making his first films in Russia he moved to Canada where he adapted the novel The Old Man and the Sea, resulting in a 20-minute animated short — the first large-format animated film ever made. Technically impressive, the film is made entirely in pastel oil paintings on glass, a technique mastered by only a handful of animators in the world. By using his fingertips instead of a paintbrush on different glass sheets positioned on multiple levels, each covered with slow-drying oil paints, he was able to add depth to his paintings. After photographing each frame painted on the glass sheets, which was four times larger than the usual A4-sized canvas, he had to slightly modify the painting for the next frame and so on. It took him over two years—from March 1997 through April 1999—to paint each of the 29,000+ frames. For the shooting of the frames a special adapted motion-control camera system was built, probably the most precise computerized animation stand ever made. On this an IMAX camera was mounted, and a video-assist camera was then attached to the IMAX camera. The film was highly acclaimed, receiving the Academy Award for Animated Short Film and Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

After this, Aleksandr Petrov has maintained a close relationship with Pascal Blais Studio in Canada, which helped fund The Old Man and the Sea, where he works on commercials. He returned to Yaroslavl in Russia to work on his latest film, My Love, which was finished in spring 2006 after three years' work and had its premiere at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival on 27 August, where it won the Audience Prize and the Special International Jury Prize. On 17 March 2007, My Love was theatrically released at the Cinema Angelika in Shibuya, (Japan) by Studio Ghibli, as the first release of the "Ghibli Museum Library" (theatrical and DVD releases of Western animated films in Japan).

In a 2009 interview, Petrov stated that he was jobless and using-up the last of his previously earned money. A 2010 article stated that Petrov wants to create an animated feature film with his technique, but cannot start because of lack of funds. Four years later he directed a three-minute animated sequence for the Sochi Paralympic Games called Firebird (Жар-птица). In an interview later that year, Petrov confirmed that if he can find the funding, he would like to work on a feature film in the future using his signature style, and stated that he is currently working on a film project but that it is progressing with great difficulty.

In July 2016, Petrov sat on the board of directors for the International Film Festival of Poetic Animation held in Pergola, Italy.

In July 2020, Petrov told reporters that he had started pre-production work on a 60-minute biographical film called Knyaz about Alexander Nevsky, which would be released in 2025. In March 2021 he said that the film had entered production and would be released in late 2024. Nevsky exhibited sketches for the film in 2023 and 2024.

Artistic style
Petrov's style from the late 1980s onward can be characterized as a type of Romantic realism. People, animals and landscapes are painted and animated in a very realistic fashion, but there are many sections in his films where Petrov attempts to depict a character's inner thoughts and dreams. In The Old Man and the Sea, for example, the fisherman dreams that he and the marlin are brothers swimming through the sea and the sky. In My Love, the main character's illness is represented by showing him being buried beneath freshly fallen snow on a dark night.

Director

 * 1988—Marathon, Марафон (Marafon) (directed and animated with Mikhail Tumelya)
 * 1989—The Cow, Корова (Korova) (after Andrey Platonov)
 * 1992—The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, Сон смешного человека (Son smeshnovo cheloveka) (after Fyodor Dostoevsky)
 * 1997—Mermaid, Русалка (Rusalka) (after Alexander Pushkin)
 * 1999—The Old Man and the Sea (after Ernest Hemingway)
 * 2003—Participated in Winter Days, 冬の日 (Fuyu no hi)
 * 2006—My Love, Моя любовь (Moya lyubov) (after Ivan Shmelev)
 * 2014—Firebird, ''Жар-птица' (Zhar-ptitsa)

Art director

 * 1984—By a Wave of the Wand, По щучьему велению (Po shchuchyemu veleniyu) (directed by Valeriy Fomin, cutout animation)
 * 1985—Tale of a Small Fry, Сказочка про козявочку (Skazochka pro kozyavochku) (directed by Vladimir Petkevich, paint-on-glass)
 * 1986—Welcome, Добро пожаловать (Dobro pozhalovat) (directed by Alexei Karayev, paint-on-glass)
 * 1989—The Guardian, Хранитель (Khranitel) (directed by Vladimir Petkevich, ?)

Awards

 * 1988—Ottawa International Animation Festival: Welcome, "Grand Prix"
 * 1990—Berlin International Film Festival: The Cow, "Honorable Mention" in the category "Best Short Film"
 * 1990—Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film: The Cow (nominated)
 * 1990—Ottawa International Animation Festival: The Cow, "OIAF Award for Best First Film"
 * 1992—Bombay International Documentary, Short and Animation Film Festival: The Cow, "Golden Conch for Best Animation Film"
 * 1992—Ottawa International Animation Festival: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, "Audience Award" and "OIAF Award for Best Production Between 10 and 30 Minutes in Length"
 * 1993—Cracow Film Festival: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, "Special Mention for the depiction of a crucial subject in the form of animation"
 * 1997—Cinanima: The Mermaid, "Grand Prize"
 * 1997—International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film: The Mermaid, "Honorable Mention" in the category "Animated Films and Videos"
 * 1997—2nd Open Russian Festival of Animated Film: The Mermaid, "Best Animator of a Drawn Film", "3rd Place Rating by Audience Vote"
 * 1998—Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film: The Mermaid (nominated)
 * 1998—Ottawa International Animation Festival: The Mermaid, "Craft Prize" in the category "Best Story"
 * 1998—Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films: The Mermaid, "Grand Prize"
 * 1999—Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film: The Old Man and the Sea
 * 2006—11th Hiroshima International Animation Festival: My Love, "Audience Prize" and "Special International Jury Prize"
 * 2006—International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film: My Love, "FIPRESCI Prize for Best Animation"
 * 2006—Animation Show of Shows; My Love
 * 2007—12th Open Russian Festival of Animated Film: My Love, "Grand Prix", "Best Direction" and "Best Visuals"
 * 2007—XVII International "Message to Man" Film Festival: My Love, "Grand Prix"
 * 2007—Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film: My Love (nominated)

title: Aleksandr Petrov (animator)


text:
HVDC Vancouver Island

HVDC Vancouver Island is a de-energized high-voltage direct current interconnection between Arnott Substation (ARN) in Delta, British Columbia at 49.09194°N, -123.04194°W on the Canadian mainland, and the Vancouver Island Terminal (VIT) in Duncan, British Columbia on Vancouver Island at 48.8275°N, -123.71528°W. It went into operation in 1968 and was extended in 1977. HVDC Vancouver Island consists of three overhead line sections with a total length of 42 kilometres and two submarine cable sections with a length of 33 kilometres. Pole 1 ceased operation in 2014, and Pole 2 ceased operation in 2016. The infrastructure remains in place and portions may be re-used in the future.

Route
After its departure from Arnott Substation the overhead power line on the mainland splits at 49.06056°N, -123.075°W into two branches, one running to the Canoe Pass Terminal at 49.05167°N, -123.12278°W and the other running to the Tsawwassen Beach Terminal at 49.02778°N, -123.10028°W, where the first submarine cable section begins.

At 48.91861°N, -123.40417°W, the first submarine cable section ends and a short overhead line section running south-west across Galiano Island starts. The overhead line leaves Galiano Island south of Montague Harbour in an 880-metre-long span, which starts at 48.88083°N, -123.38917°W and ends on Parker Island at 48.88°N, -123.40111°W.

A little to the west, on Parker Island at 48.87917°N, -123.4025°W the overhead line ends and the second submarine cable section begins. At 48.85056°N, -123.42528°W the cable reaches Salt Spring Island and the third overhead line section starts. It crosses Salt Spring Island west-south-westerly. North of Maxwell Point at 48.83167°N, -123.56389°W and Arbutus Point at 48.82778°N, -123.58917°W the overhead line crosses Sansum Narrows, the strait between Salt Spring Island and Vancouver Island, by a 1900-metre-long span. After this span the overhead line runs westward to Vancouver Island Terminal near the town of Duncan.

History
In 1968 the first pole of the HVDC Vancouver Island link went into service. Its static inverters use mercury vapour rectifiers. Each of these rectifiers was 3.35 m long, 1.22 m wide and 6.10 m high and has a weight of 4.5 metric tons. The valves are situated in a hall 26.21 m long, 11.89 m wide and 11.28 m high. The maximum transmission capacity of this pole was 312 megawatts and the transmission voltage was 260 kV. The stations Vancouver Island Terminal and Arnott Substation were designed and delivered by Swedish company ASEA (later ABB). The Swedish team of some 10 people were headed for the first phase by Ivan Hedlund and for the second phase by Gunnar Ahgren.

In 1977 the HVDC Vancouver Island link was supplemented by installing a second pole. This pole used thyristor valves for its static inverters and operated at a voltage of 280 kV with a rating of 370 megawatts. A new 230 kV. submarine cable for three-phase alternating current has been constructed between the Canadian mainland and Vancouver Island. This parallels the existing two HVDC lines and replaces one of two earlier 138 kV lines. In the 2005 hearings for the new 230kV circuit the HVDC systems were reported to be at the end of their service life and are not considered to be reliable. As a result of this, the first pole was shut down in 2014 and the second in 2016.

Electrodes and metallic return
HVDC Vancouver Island used metallic return, during monopolar operation, when current is lower than 600 A. Otherwise earth return was used. On Vancouver Island the line for metallic return is a monopolar line on wooden poles, which are used in some sections also by AC lines, running parallel to the main line of HVDC Vancouver Island.

On the mainland, it uses the poles of the electrode line until a point at 49.06083°N, -123.04278°W. After this point it runs on wooden poles together with a single-circuit three-phase AC line until 49.04028°N, -123.07556°W. From there it runs as underground cable to Splashdown Park, where it transits at 49.03278°N, -123.09056°W again into an overhead line, which ends at the terminal of the main line at 49.02778°N, -123.10028°W.

The electrode on the Canadian Mainland is a land electrode situated at Boundary Bay at 49.05694°N, -123.02944°W. It is connected with Arnott Substation by an overhead pole line with two conductors. The electrode on Vancouver Island is a shore electrode in a bay at Sansum Narrows at 48.77278°N, -123.57333°W. It is connected with Vancouver Island Terminal by an overhead line with two conductors, which is installed on wooden poles. It runs between Vancouver Island Terminal and a point northwest of Maple Bay at 48.82639°N, -123.62722°W parallel to other power lines.

title: HVDC Vancouver Island


text:
Tsukigata, Niigata

Tsukigata (月潟村) was a village located in Nishikanbara District, Niigata Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the village had an estimated population of 3,769 and a density of 416.92 persons per km2. The total area was 9.04 km2.

On March 21, 2005, Tsukigata, along with the cities of Niitsu, Shirone and Toyosaka, the towns of Kameda, Kosudo and Yokogoshi (all from Nakakanbara District), the town of Nishikawa, and the villages of Ajikata, Iwamuro, Katahigashi and Nakanokuchi (all from Nishikanbara District), was merged into the expanded city of Niigata. As of April 1, 2007, the area is part of Minami-ku ward.

title: Tsukigata, Niigata


text:
Nakanokuchi, Niigata

Nakanokuchi (中之口村) was a village located in Nishikanbara District, Niigata Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2005, the village had an estimated population of 6,613 and a density of 328.03 persons per km2. The total area was 20.16 km2.

On March 21, 2005, Nakanokuchi, along with the cities of Niitsu, Shirone and Toyosaka, the towns of Kameda, Kosudo and Yokogoshi (all from Nakakanbara District), the town of Nishikawa, and the villages of Ajikata, Iwamuro, Katahigashi and Tsukigata (all from Nishikanbara District), was merged into the expanded city of Niigata. As of April 1, 2007, the area is now part of Nishikan-ku ward (西蒲区).

Sumo Champion
The village is the birthplace of Haguroyama Masaji (羽黒山 政司, November 18, 1914 - October 14, 1969) who was sumo's 36th yokozuna. Haguroyama earned the rank in May 1941 and held the title for twelve years and three months. It remains an all-time record today.

During his career Haguroyama won seven top division championships and was runner-up on six other occasions.

In Nakanokuchi, there is a museum dedicated to Haguroyama and a bronze statue of the famous wrestler wearing his shimenawa (the knotted rope indicating his rank as yokozuna).

title: Nakanokuchi, Niigata


text:
Pacific DC Intertie

The Pacific DC Intertie (also called Path 65) is an electric power transmission line that transmits electricity from the Pacific Northwest to the Los Angeles area using high voltage direct current (HVDC). The line capacity is 3.1 gigawatts, which is enough to serve two to three million Los Angeles households and represents almost half of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) electrical system's peak capacity.

The intertie originates near the Columbia River at the Celilo Converter Station of Bonneville Power Administration's grid outside The Dalles, Oregon and is connected to the Sylmar Converter Station north of Los Angeles, which is owned by five utility companies and managed by LADWP. The Intertie can transmit power in either direction, but power flows mostly from north to south.

The section of the line in Oregon is owned and operated by Bonneville Power Administration, while the line in Nevada and California is owned and operated by Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The transition is at the Oregon–Nevada border, at 41.9964°N, -119.9623°W.

This is one of two HVDC lines serving Los Angeles; the other is Path 27.

Overview
The idea of sending hydroelectric power to Southern California had been proposed as early as the 1930s, but was opposed and scrapped. By 1961, US president John F. Kennedy authorized a large public works project, using new high voltage direct current technology from Sweden. The project was undertaken as a close collaboration between General Electric of the US and ASEA of Sweden. Private California power companies had opposed the project but their technical objections were rebutted by Uno Lamm of ASEA at an 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 US$600,000 per day by use of cheaper electric power from dams on the Columbia River.

One advantage of direct current over AC is that DC current penetrates the entire conductor as opposed to AC current which only penetrates to the skin depth. For the same conductor size, the effective resistance is greater with AC than DC, hence more power is lost as heat with AC. In general, the total cost for HVDC is less than an AC line if the line length is over 500–600 miles, and with advances in conversion technology, this distance has been reduced considerably. A DC line is also ideal for connecting two AC systems that are not synchronized with each other. HVDC lines can help stabilize a power grid against cascading blackouts since power flow through the line is controllable.

The Pacific Intertie takes advantage of differing power demand patterns between the northwestern and southwestern US. During winter, the northern region operates electrical heating devices while the southern portion uses relatively little electricity. In summer, the north uses little electricity while the south reaches peak demand due to air conditioning usage. Any time the Intertie demand lessens, the excess is distributed elsewhere on the western power grid (states west of the Great Plains, including Colorado and New Mexico).

Components
The Pacific Intertie consists of:
 * The Celilo Converter Station which converts three phase 60 Hz AC at 230 to 500 kV to ±500 kV DC (1000 kV pole-to-pole) at 45.59417°N, -121.11417°W.
 * The grounding system at Celilo consists of 1,067 cast iron anodes buried in a 2 ft trench of petroleum coke, which behaves as an electrode, arranged in a ring of 3255 m circumference at Rice Flats (near Rice, Oregon), which is 10.6 km SSE of Celilo. It is connected to the converter station by two aerial 644 mm2 ACSR (aluminum conductor, steel reinforced) conductors, which end at a "dead-end" tower situated at 45.49759°N, -121.06462°W.
 * A 1361 km overhead transmission line consisting of two steel-cored ACSR conductors, each 1.6 in in diameter with a conducting cross-sectional area of 1171 mm2, carrying 500 kV.
 * The two lines when combined have a capacity of 3.1 gigawatts (in bipolar mode).
 * The Sylmar Converter Station (34.31167°N, -118.48139°W) which converts DC to 230 kV AC (a process also called inverting) and is phase-synchronized with the L.A. power grid.
 * The Sylmar grounding system is a line of 24 silicon-iron alloy electrodes submerged in the Pacific Ocean at Will Rogers State Beach suspended in concrete enclosures about 0.5 to 1 m above the ocean floor. The grounding array, which is 48 km from the converter station and is connected by a pair of 644 mm2 ACSR conductors, which are in the sections north of Kenter Canyon Terminal Tower at 34.06805°N, -118.48847°W installed instead of the ground conductors on the pylons. It runs from Kenter Canyon Terminal Tower, via DWP Receiving Station U (Tarzana; a former switching station), Receiving Station J (Northridge) and Rinaldi Receiving Station (also a former switching station) to Sylmar Converter Station. On the section between Receiving Stations J and Rinaldi, one of the two shielding conductors on each of two parallel-running 230 kV transmission lines is used as electrode line conductor.

History

The first phase of the scheme, completed in May 1970, used only mercury-arc valves in the converters. 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 1,800 amperes, for a transmission rating of 1,440 MW with a symmetrical voltage of 400 kV with respect to earth.

Each converter station housed six mercury arc valves groups, consisting each of seven valves, for a total of 42 valves in each converter. The valves had a width of 2.15 m, a height of 3.2 m and a length of 3.5 m and weighed 14000 lb. Each valve contained 1.1 litre mercury, with a weight of 14.9 kg.

 * 1972: After the Sylmar earthquake, the Sylmar Converter Station had to be reconstructed due to extensive damage.
 * 1982: The power rating of the mercury arc valve rectifiers was raised by various improvements to 1,600 MW.
 * 1984: The transmission voltage was pushed to 500 kV and the transmission power was increased to 2,000 MW by adding one six-pulse thyristor valve group rated at 100 kV to each pole.
 * 1989: A further increase of the transmission power to 3,100 MW took place by installing a 1,100 MW parallel connected thyristor converter in Celilo and Sylmar. This upgrade started in 1985 was called the Pacific Intertie Expansion. This expanded the converter station to two sites, Sylmar West (situated at 34.30889°N, -118.48694°W) and Sylmar East (situated at 34.31167°N, -118.48139°W).
 * 1993: One pole of the Pacific Intertie Expansion converter station at Sylmar was completely destroyed by fire. The converter was replaced in 1994–1995 by Siemens.
 * 1994: After the Northridge earthquake, the Sylmar Converter Station had to be reconstructed due to extensive damage.
 * 2004: The Sylmar East station was upgraded from 1,100 MW to 3,100 MW. The controls and older converters, including the mercury arc valves, were completely replaced by a single pair of 3,100 MW 12-pulse converters built by ABB. This allowed the Sylmar East station to handle the full capacity. In parallel with this project, the six-pulse mercury arc valves at the Celilo Converter Station were replaced with Siemens light-triggered thyristors in compliance with their Modified Age Replacement Policy (MARP).
 * 2005: The Sylmar East station was rededicated as the Sylmar Converter Station.
 * 2014-2015: The Celilo converter substation was upgraded in a similar manner to the Sylmar East upgrade. The North converter was upgraded from 1,100 MW to 3,100 MW. The new converter was built by the ABB.  The new converter connects at 500kV AC instead of the previous 230kV AC connection.  After completion, all of the equipment for the south converter was removed.

title: Pacific DC Intertie


text:
ObjectStore

ObjectStore is a commercial object database, a specialized type of NoSQL database designed to handle data created by applications that use object-oriented programming techniques, avoiding the object–relational mapping overhead required when using object-oriented data with a relational database. It is inspired by the Statice database originally developed at Symbolics.

ObjectStore is innovative in its use of the C++ language to make database access transparent. Objects can be created in a database by overloading the operator new. In this way, one can create new C++ objects directly in the database yet these persistent objects look and behave just like normal C++ objects. Data is mapped into memory as operating system pages. When data is referenced in a different page, by making use of signals, ObjectStore traps the pointer exception and transparently brings objects in from the database by bringing in the required page(s). In addition, by use of a technique called swizzling, the database can be accessed from different platforms, with pages being 'swizzled' as they are brought into memory on page faults to correct big endian versus little endian platform issues as well as virtual function table layout. The design of ObjectStore is described in a 1991 paper in the Communications of the ACM.

ObjectStore was originally created in 1988 by Object Design, Incorporated, which was based in Burlington, Massachusetts and founded by several former Symbolics employees, including Daniel Weinreb. In 2002 the product was acquired by Progress Software, which continued to develop the technology, expanding its use beyond the object database market to target uses as a database for real-time computing, specifically designed for RFID data management, and as a cache for relational databases.

In 2013, Progress Software sold off many of its non-core products to Aurea Software, Inc., a newly formed operating subsidiary of ESW Capital, the investment arm of Trilogy Enterprises. As part of the deal the ObjectStore product line moved to a separate operating subsidiary of ESW Capital.

The ObjectStore product is used in many fields, including telecommunications, financial services, travel, GIS, and the government.

One of the early successful applications of the product was with Telstra to handle 13 and 1300 numbers in Australia - similar to 1800 numbers in the US. The product enabled the real time mapping of those numbers to a number closest to the caller - for example a local taxi company or the nearest open Pizza Hut.

title: ObjectStore