HVDC Kingsnorth

The high-voltage direct current transmission system Kingsnorth in London was the only one to this day application of the technique for high-voltage direct current transmission to feed urban substations.

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It was realized in the first half of the 1970s and went into operation in 1975. She led from the power plant Kingsnorth in the form of a 59- kilometer long bipolar underground cable for a voltage of 266 kV converter station in Beddington. The cable was still 26 kilometers further than single-pole connection to the converter station in Willesden. There was also the possibility, if the converter station Kingsnorth was out of service, to operate the system between the stations as a single-pole HVDC Beddington and Willesden. The HVDC Kingsnorth was the last equipped with mercury vapor rectifiers HVDC, where each converter consisted of 266 kV of two series-connected three-phase bridges for 132 kV, which ever one were fed in star-star and star-connected -delta transformer. All later built facilities used thyristors. The HVDC Kingsnorth could transfer a total capacity of 640 MW (320 MW per pole).

Since the system no longer meets the operating requirements today, she was decommissioned in 1987 and replaced by three-phase cable.

• History of London
• HVDC line