Power from the DRC’s Inga-Katanga line increases from 560 MW to 1,120 MW
The national electricity company (SNEL) rehabilitated the Inga converter station (SCI) and the Kolwezi converter station. This work carried out by the firm AEE made it possible to double the total power of the line which goes to 1120 MW.
The energy produced by Inga’s power plants is alternating current, explains SNEL. Since the Inga-Katanga line is 1700 km long, the transport of alternating current will create a loss of 30 to 40% at the terminal (SCK), hence the need to convert this current into direct which will only have a loss of less than 10 % at the end of the year.
“We rehabilitated converters to increase the transit power. Before we wanted to add two converters at the start and at the terminal but we said to ourselves that we just had to change the thyristors. We had 3096 thyristors per converter which cost 4000 USD per piece. At the moment we are in 800 per converter with the new bigger converters, ”said Jeancy Mbongo, SCI ai division head.
According to SNEL, the Inga-Katanga transmission line is already dimensioned at 1120 MW, the transmission of such a capacity of current in the south of the country will not pose any problem.
“Before the rehabilitation, the converter had a power of 560 MW due to 280 MW per converter. After the rehabilitation, the power went from 560 MW to 1120 MW due to 560 MW per converter. We kept the same structure but we changed the main part which is the thyristor which made it possible to double the capacity at the level of the converter. In the external station, we changed the transformers. We replaced those of 57 MVA by those of 114 MVA. On the DC side, we have changed line reactances, smoothing lines and transducers plus voltage dividers. Currently we are ready to transport 1120 MW to Katanga “, said Mr. Mbongo.
The output of the Inga 1 and Inga 2 power stations is 1209 MW. There are 4 big departures including 2 lines for Kinshasa (Kimwenza and Kwilu), a line for the cities of Matadi and Boma and the Bas-Fleuve as well as a line for Katanga after the conversion to SCI and SCK. Katanga is currently recovering some 400 MW produced at the Inga site.
