WEG Transmission & Distribution is providing a substation, complete with a set of regulators and autotransformers, as well as associated equipment, facilities and interconnections civil works as part of the expansion of the Right Bank Substation at Itaipu Binacional, the world’s largest hydro power plant, on the Brazil-Paraguay border. The Right Bank Substation is located on the Paraguayan portion of the plant and is administered by the Paraguayan power agency, Administración Nacional de Electricidad (ANDE).
“This will be Itaipu Binacional’s most powerful regulator/transformer set and represents the largest transformers ever supplied by WEG,” Carlos Diether Prinz, CEO of WEG Transmission & Distribution, says. “The regulator weighs 140 tons and the 470 MVA 525 kV autotransformer weighs 298 tons, with a combined weight of 438 tons”.
The autotransformer is 12.9 metres high, 2.4 metres wide and 20.5 metres in length, requiring 95 100 litres of oil. WEG’s plant in Blumenau is 800 km from Foz do Iguaçu City, where Itaipu Binational is located and it took 30 days to transport the products to the power station.
WEG was able to deliver the regulator two months in advance and delivered the autotransformer one month ahead of schedule.
“This order is a milestone in terms of designing and manufacturing such a complex device,” Prinz says.
The installation of this equipment is the result of studies conducted some years ago, when the authorities recognised that expansion would be required to meet the increasing demand for power from Paraguay. The Right Bank Substation expansion is expected to provide a reliable mechanism to support this growth.
In 2010, Paraguay recorded an economic growth of approximately 15%, the highest in 20 years. The country needs more electricity to support this economic expansion, mainly to meet industrial demand.
WEG has a controlling stake in South Africa’s Zest WEG Group, which distributes, markets and supports a wide range of electric motors, variable speed drives, transformers and switchgear in sub–Saharan Africa. Zest owns a number of subsidiary companies serving key areas of South Africa’s mining, manufacturing and municipal sectors.
