Page 8 - AsiaElec Week 06

AsiaElec NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
PERFORMANCE GRID
India’s electricity demand GE completes HVDC upgrade rises3.5%inJanuaryafter inSouthKorea
HVDC transmission, and specifically this upgrade project for Jeju Island, is a critical enabler of this energy transition in Korea,” said Kim Sung-Arm, Member of the Board of Directors and Senior Executive Vice President for Power Grid, KEPCO.
NUCLEAR
Malaysia not ready for nuclear energy, says PM
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysia will not build nuclear power plants until there is a safe way to dispose of the radioactive waste generated.
He pointed out that Malaysia did not have adequate knowledge in that field.
“If you have a nuclear power plant, you will accumulate nuclear waste which is radioactive and until now they do not know how to reverse the process.
“That is why we cannot use nuclear material because it stays on formns of years. We don’t want this country to be full of such waste thrown all over the place and affecting people,” he told reporters after holding a dialogue with the French business community in Malaysia, here yesterday.
Mahathir was asked about Malaysia’s vision on renewable energy sources, after a pledge
by Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin to have Malaysia increase its renewable energy use to 20 per cent by 2025.
Stressing the need for non-polluting renewable energy sources, he said Malaysia was working on reducing the usage of traditional energy sources such as oil, gas and
five months of decline
India’s electricity demand rose 3.52% in January, government data showed on Tuesday, marking the first increase after five straight months of decline.
January demand for electricity rose to 105.29bn kWh from 101.71bn kWh a year earlier, data from the Central Electricity Authority showed, Reuters reported.
Electricity demand is seen by economists as an important indicator of industrial output and an acceleration could point to a recovery from an economic slowdown, indicated by the country’s GDP growth - which plummeted to the lowest levels in more than six years during the September quarter.
However, the rise is from a low base, as electricity demand grew at the slowest pace in January 2019 in nearly two years, CEA data showed.
India’s annual electricity demand in 2019 grew at its slowest pace in six years, amid a broader economic slowdown that led to a drop in sales of everything from cars to food products and also has led to factories cutting jobs.
Annual consumption of electricity by industry accounts for more than two-fifths
of India’s annual electricity consumption, according to government data, with residences accounting for nearly a quarter and commercial establishments for another 8.5%.
GE Renewable Energy’s Grid Solutions business recently completed an upgrade
to one of two high-voltage direct current (HVDC) links between the South Korean mainland and Jeju Island, allowing for more efficient bi-directional transfer of power, including renewable energy.
South Korea’s first HVDC upgrade ever includes the first commercial application
of Grid Solution’s most advanced Line Commutated Converter (LCC) valve technology, the H450, as well as an upgrade to the control system and cooling system. Thanks to the upgraded control system,
both the refurbished 300MW link and the second 400MW link are now using GE’s latest algorithms for maintaining grid frequency, providing higher reliability and more robust operational control.
The HVDC refurbishment was done exceptionally fast, in accordance with Korea’s largest electric utility Korea Electric Power Corporation’s (KEPCO’s) 24-month deadline. Within this timeframe, the link continued to operate except for an amazingly small window of about three months.
The innovative H450 valve technology was developed by GE’s Grid Integration Solutions, a division of GE’s Grid Solutions, at its HVDC Center of Excellence in Stafford, UK. Thanks to its smaller physical footprint compared with the previous valve technology, GE was able to install it within the existing valve hall.
“The reinforcement of the grid to accompany the renewable energy generation objective of the Korean government is critical.
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Week 06 12•February•2020