REN´s Pedralva Substation visited by engineers from differente countries

Around 60 engineers from different countries visited REN's Pedralva Substation in Braga, on 28 October. The visit was part of the fourth Advanced Research Workshop on Transformers - ARWtr2013', which is held every three years in Galicia.

It is organised by Vigo University and sponsored by many manufacturers of transformers and their equipment, power utilities and the Spanish and Portuguese national committees of Cigré - International Council on Large Electric Systems.

The reason for the visit to the Pedralva Substation, an essential node of the National Energy Transmission Grid (RNT), had to do with the fact that it, like the Falagueira Substation, is equipped with two 400/150 kV, 450 MVA phase-shifter transformers.

This makes it possible to transfer the large concentration of hydroelectric and wind energy generation of the Minho region from the 150 kV grid to the 400 kV grid.

The 60 engineers included members of the ARWtr2013 International Supporting Committee, Maria José Clara, Chair of the Portuguese National Committee of Cigré and Managing Director of REN, and Óscar Ribeiro, Secretary of the Portuguese National Committee of Cigré and of the Cigré Ibero-American Region, who was the guest author, presenting his work A Static Electric Machine (Power Transformer) History in the Portuguese National Grid (1951 - 2012).