POWER May 2011 - 15

UK-Netherlands HVDC Link Starts Operating. A 260-km
subsea high-voltage DC link between Britain and the Netherlands
began operating on April 1. Siemens Energy designed and
completed the transmission system for BritNed Development,
a joint venture of UK grid operator National Grid and Arnhembased
TenneT, the Dutch grid operator. The connection, with
a transmission capacity of 1,000 MW, links the 400-kV grids
in southern England and in the south of the Netherlands (via
converter stations on the Isle of Grain in Kent and Maasvlakte
near Rotterdam). The new line is expected to better compensate
major fluctuations in generation from the planned expansion of
wind power in the UK as well as improve competition in northwestern
Europe's grid.
NTPC Starts Up New 500-MW Coal Unit. India's National
Thermal Power Corp. (NTPC) on March 5 began operation of a
500-MW unit of the Indira Gandhi Super Thermal Power Project
at Jajjar, Haryana State. The project, a joint venture with Indraprastha
Power Generation Co. and Haryana Power Generation
Corp., was built within the stipulated 44 months, making it
eligible for a 0.5% extra return on equity throughout its lifetime.
Power generated by the plant will be supplied in equal measure
to Haryana and Delhi. Two other 500-MW units are under construction
at the Indira Gandhi power plant. NTPC, which operates
close to 30 power stations across India (with an installed
capacity of more than 33,000 MW), has nearly 16,000 MW under
construction, most of which is coal-fired.
Dominion Launches Study for East Coast High-Voltage
Subsea Line. Dominion Virginia Power in late March said it
has begun studying what it would take to build a high-voltage
underwater transmission line from Virginia Beach into the Atlantic
Ocean to support potentially multiple offshore wind farms.
The study will be completed later this year and it will evaluate
the best options to support multiple offshore wind projects off
the coast of Virginia. In addition to working with PJM Interconnection
through its Regional Transmission Expansion Planning
process, the Virginia State Corporation Commission would have
to approve any power line project.
New Jersey BPU Greenlights Three New Gas Plants. New
Jersey's Board of Public Utilities on March 29 approved standard
offer capacity agreements for three gas-fired projects to be
located in Newark, Old Bridge, and Woodbridge. Hess Newark
LLC will build a 625-MW gas plant near Newark to go online in
2016; NRG's New Jersey Power Development LLC is expected to
begin operating the 660-MW Old Bridge Clean Energy Center, a
combined-cycle gas plant, in 2015; and CPV Shore LLC will build
a 663-MW gas plant near Woodbridge, also to be operational in
2015. The projects, with a combined capacity of 1,948.5 MW,
were approved under the state's new Long-Term Capacity Agreement
Pilot Program law.
Peru Awards $1.8B Hydropower Concessions. Peru on
March 24 awarded hydroelectric power concessions valued at
US$1.8 billion to three different consortiums in a bid to expand
its power production, mainly from the Amazon basin, to meet
the needs of its mining and manufacturing sectors. Empresa de
Generacion Huallaga, a subsidiary of Brazilian firm Odebrecht,
will build the 460-MW Chaglia hydroelectric power station in the
central Huanuco region; Consorcio Generadora Pucara-owned
by the Peruvian firms Graña y Montero and Egecusco-will construct
the Pucara project in the southeastern Cuzco region, and
Cerro del Aguila S.A., part of Israel's Kallpa, will develop a 400MW
project in the southwestern Huancavelica region. The plants
are expected to come online in 2016. ■
-Sonal Patel is POWER's senior writer.
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