Hitachi Energy to secure power supply in Africa’s longest HVDC link

Hitachi Energy has signed a long-term service agreement with Société Nationale d’Electricité (SNEL), the national electricity company of the Democratic Republic of Congo, to secure power supply in the Inga-Kolwezi high-voltage direct current (HVDC) link.

The link supplies up to 1,000 megawatts of emission-free electricity from the Inga Falls hydropower plant in the far west of the country to the Kolwezi mining region in the south. With a length of 1,700 kilometers, it is the longest HVDC link in Africa. It also enables the Democratic Republic of Congo to export surplus power to the member countries of the Southern African Power Pool.

The agreement continues the close collaboration between SNEL and Hitachi Energy over the past 40 years to ensure the link operates at maximum availability and reliability over its long operating life, said Hitachi Energy in a statement.

As part of the agreement, Hitachi Energy will assess the precise service needs of the converter stations and develop a preventive maintenance program and supervise its implementation over the next five years. The agreement includes training, knowledge sharing and expertise enhancement of SNEL service personnel.

“We are delighted to be continuing our long collaboration with SNEL to protect the nation’s investment in its most important power transmission link,” said Andreas Berthou, HVDC and HVDC Service Global Product Group Manager of Hitachi Energy. “This long-term service agreement demonstrates how we work closely with the customer to secure availability and reliability over the entire lifetime of the asset.”

“Hitachi Energy has been a close and valued partner of SNEL for almost 50 years, when we first collaborated on the design of what was then a groundbreaking HVDC link with the world’s longest transmission line,” said Jean-Bosco Kayombo Kayan, CEO of SNEL. “Since then, we have worked closely together to increase the capacity and maximize the reliability of this critical national infrastructure.”