Basslink
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Basslink is a HVDC link crossing Bass Strait, connecting the static inverter plant Loy Yang, in Victoria on the Australian mainland, and the static inverter plant George Town in northern Tasmania. The company that owns and operates the link is National Grid Australia Pty Ltd, which itself is owned by UK company National Grid plc.
Basslink is a monopolar HVDC operating at a nominal voltage of 400 kV (dc). The nominal rating of the link is 500 MW although it is capable of transmitting 630 megawatts from George Town to Loy Yang for up to 4 hours.
It consists of a 290 kilometre long submarine power cable (the longest of its type in the world), a 60.8 kilometre long overhead power line section in Victoria, a 6.6 kilometre long underground cable in Victoria, an 11 kilometre long overhead line section in Tasmania and a 1.7 kilometre long underground cable section in Tasmania. The cable weighs 60 kg / m.
On 1 December 2005, electrical power flowed across Basslink for the first time, as part of the testing procedure. At midnight on the morning of Saturday, 29 April 2006, the link was officially enabled for commercial trading of energy on the National Electricity Market. <ref>http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1626623.htm</ref>
The Basslink cable also includes a run of dark fibre. This is notable as, once it is in commercial operation, it will be the first non-Telstra operated fibre cable crossing Bass Strait.
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