McNeill HVDC Back-to-back station is an HVDC back-to-back station at 50°35'56"N 110°1'25"W, which is used for the interconnection of the power grids of the canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 provinces Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

 and Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

 and went in service in 1989. McNeill HVDC back-to-back station can transfer a maximum power of 150 MW at a voltage of 42 kV. The station, which was built by Alstom

Alstom

Alstom is a large multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2010-2011 Alstom had annual sales of over €20.9 billion, and employed more than 85,000 people in 70 countries. Alstom's headquarters are...

, is unique as no smoothing reactor, a part which most engineers consider as an absolutely must at HVDC plants, is used. The thyristor valves of the station are cooled by an aqueous ethylene/glycol solution, which does not freeze at temperature of -50°C.

External links

• http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fiel3%2F1160%2F4020%2F00154157.pdf%3Farnumber%3D154157&authDecision=-203
• http://www.atcoelectric.com/Our_Services/Our_System/Trans_projects/McNeill_Converter_Station/Atco-McNeill-LONotice-Mar13-2009-web.pdf