High-voltage Direct Current - Costs of High Voltage DC Transmission

Costs of High Voltage DC Transmission

Normally manufacturers such as Alstom, Siemens and ABB do not state specific cost information of a particular project since this is a commercial matter between the manufacturer and the client.

Costs vary widely depending on the specifics of the project such as power rating, circuit length, overhead vs. underwater route, land costs, and AC network improvements required at either terminal. A detailed evaluation of DC vs. AC cost may be required where there is no clear technical advantage to DC alone and only economics drives the selection.

However some practitioners have given out some information that can be reasonably well relied upon:

For an 8 GW 40 km link laid under the English Channel, the following are approximate primary equipment costs for a 2000 MW 500 kV bipolar conventional HVDC link (exclude way-leaving, on-shore reinforcement works, consenting, engineering, insurance, etc.)

• Converter stations ~£110M (~173.7M USD)
• Subsea cable + installation ~£1M/km (~1.6M USD/km)

So for an 8 GW capacity between England and France in four links, little is left over from £750M for the installed works. Add another £200–300M for the other works depending on additional onshore works required.

An April, 2010 announcement for a 2,000 MW line, 64 km, between Spain and France, is 700 million euros; this includes the cost of a tunnel through the Pyrenees.