American Superconductor Corp has received a turnkey order for the company’s proprietary D-VAR STATCOM reactive compensation device from Ergon Energy Corp, an electricity distribution company serving Queensland, Australia. AMSC will install the D-VAR STATCOM system in Ergon’s St. George substation to provide improvements in the quality of power in the region.
D-VAR STATCOM systems are ‘intelligent grid’ solutions that constantly monitor the power grid and automatically stabilise voltage to enable higher power transfer through existing power lines with increased reliability and efficiency. D-VAR solutions are also utilised to interconnect sources of renewable energy to power grids, and are already connecting more than one-third of Australia’s wind-generated electricity to the grid. AMSC currently has more STATCOM systems installed than any other manufacturer.
The D-VAR provided to Ergon Energy will have a continuous rating of 20 MVAR capacitive and 5 MVAR inductive compensation. AMSC will provide a full turnkey D-VAR solution, including installation and ongoing maintenance and support for Ergon. The contract calls for commissioning early in 2012.
