October 20, 2014 – As part of a consortium with Mortenson Construction, Siemens Canada says it has been selected to design, supply and install the HVDC (high-voltage direct current) equipment and buildings required for the Bipole III HVDC Project’s two converter stations for Manitoba Hydro.

Siemens will be supplying both converter stations for the Bipole III HVDC project, which will have a transmission capacity of 2300MW and is expected to be commissioned in the summer of 2018.

Rob Elder, division manager, Bipole III Project, Manitoba Hydro, explained this $800-million+ contract “is one of the cornerstones of the project. It has been five years in preliminary design work, and over a year of working with Siemens and Mortenson on developing their solution to this contract”.

Siemens is supplying the complete HVDC core technology, based on thyristor-technology, while Mortensen Construction will be responsible for the construction of the converter stations. This HVDC link is about 1400 km and will connect the Keewatinohk Converter Station (northern Manitoba near Hudson Bay) with the Riel Converter Station in south Winnipeg by a ±500kV overhead line.

The scope of the contract includes the design, engineering, manufacturing, supply and commissioning of all HVDC core components, such as converter valves with direct light-triggered power thyristors, converter transformers, smoothing reactors, protection and I&C equipment (instrumentation and control), and AC and DC filters.