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Electrifying London
Underground cable connects substations to placate
London’s insatiable demand for power
Stephen Trotter
for National Grid on London’s around twice the national average. The “London connection”
power infrastructure have provid- Projections indicate that this growth Running in a 20km long three-meter
ed a 20 km long, high-voltage, rate will be sustained for at least an- diameter tunnel, the cable links an
other 10 years. Since 1990, to ensure extended substation at Elstree to a
underground cable link, together
the future of London’s power supply, substation built by ABB at St John’s
with two major new GIS (gas insu- National Grid has invested over Euros Wood. It was the largest tunneling
lated switchgear) indoor substa- 1,000 million ($ 1,270 million) in the project that National Grid has ever
tions – all to help satisfy the reinforcement of the transmission net- undertaken.
capital’s fast-growing demand for work in and around London. This rep-
electricity. resents approximately 20 percent of The “London Connection” uses high-
National Grid’s total capital invest- technology, low-maintenance cross-
ment in the whole of England and linked polyethylene (XLPE) insulation
Wales. technology and is currently Europe’s
longest 400-kV XLPE underground
One of the measures taken by Nation- cable 1 . A similar underground cable
al Grid was to commission ABB with was installed by ABB in Berlin in
a three-year turnkey project, to be 1998.
completed in the summer of 2005.
The project was to create the “London For the London project, ABB installed,
Connection” to meet electricity de- commissioned and tested 61 km of
pletion of 250,000 hours with no time EdF, to reinforce the power grid serv- task on site was the demolition of an
lost due to injury. ing the North London area. The sub- existing office block to make way for
station is housed inside a new brick the construction of the new substa-
City Road North building, designed by Markwick Ar- tion. The nature of the site, in a busy
While one ABB site team was busy in chitects, to minimize its visual impact inner-city site in Islington, was a ma-
West London, another team was hard on the area. This was in line with jor challenge. It was surrounded by
at work on the other side of the city Islington Council’s redevelopment residential, commercial and industrial
creating National Grid’s new “City plan to improve access and recre- premises, and backed on to the Re-
Road North” substation. This contract ational opportunities, thereby enhanc- gent canal. A great deal of logistical
was part of the urban regeneration of ing the local urban environment. planning was required just to move
the City Road canal basin in Islington, heavy plant and materials in and out
North London. ABB was responsible for all engineer- of the site.
ing design and civil works at City
The new City Road North substation, Road North, as well as the complete The project also included diversion of
which was constructed adjacent to the installation and commissioning of the an existing 400-kV cable into the new
existing City Road substation, is a key substation switchgear and ancillary substation. The existing cable had
part of a program by the local utility, equipment. The project team’s first linked the old City Road substation to
the substation in West Ham, six miles
away in East London, and the diver-
2 ABB power cable on massive drums
sion was necessary to complete the
West Ham/City Road North and City
Road North/West Ham circuits.
Stephen Trotter
ABB Power Systems
Stone, United Kingdom
stephen.trotter@gb.abb.com