The Cahora Bassa HVDC transmission provides an important power import facility to the South African grid. It transmits 1920 MW of power from the Cahora Bassa generating station on the Zambezi River in northern Mozambique, the largest hydroelectric scheme in Southern Africa, to the Apollo converter staion in South Africa. The transmission, which is owned by Hidroeléctrica De Cahora Bassa (HCB) in Mozambique and Eskom in South Africa, comprises two parallel monopolar lines, covering 1.400 km, of which 900 km is in Mozambican territory.
In order to enhance power availability and improve system stability, HCB awarded ABB contract for the refurbishment the HVDC converter station Songo, comprising the replacement of key high-voltage equipment, i.e. transformers, DC smoothing reactors, arresters and measuring equipment. ABB AB/HVDC Sweden has then placed the order for the HVDC smoothing reactors with Coil Innovation. The first three smoothing reactors for one of one the two poles have been supplied in February 2013. The picture was taken at the Songo converter station during the installation process in May 2013.
