ABB delivers powerful frecuency converter

ABB delivers world’s most powerful traction frequency converter

The company of power and automation technology, has delivered the world’s most powerful traction frequency converter system to E.ON, the leading German utility. The converter station located at the Datteln railway hub, is capable of supplying up to 25 percent of the power required by the German railways.

Rated at 413 megawatts (MW) and equipped with the most advanced power electronics, the system efficiently converts electricity from the country’s three-phase high-voltage grid with a rated frequency of 50 Hertz (Hz) to the 16.7 Hz required by the single-phase 110 kV (kilovolt) grid of Deutsche Bahn.

“This is a prestigious project that deploys ABB’s state-of-the-art power conversion technology,” said Oleg Aleinikov, head of ABB’s Substations business, a part of the company’s Power Systems division. “Power electronics are playing a key role in driving efficiency and reliability across many key sectors like rail, and ABB is at the forefront of this development.”

As part of the turnkey contract, ABB was responsible for the design, engineering, installation and commissioning of the system. Key components of the containerized solution include transformers and frequency converters as well as control and cooling systems.

The system consists of four identical converter blocks to provide steady power supply. Designed to ensure exceptionally high levels of system availability and reliability, it enables maintenance work to be carried out on one of the converter blocks without compromising the conversion capacity of the entire plant.

Source: ABB