Canada, British Columbia: ABB has been awarded a $28 million contract for the supply of critical power transformers for the Mica plant, British Columbia’s largest hydropower plant.

The order includes the design, manufacture and supply of single phase, 176 MVA, 500 kV generator step-up transformers, to be manufactured at ABB’s transformer facility in Varennes, Quebec, according to the manufacturer’s press release.

The Mica hydroelectric plant is one of the largest earth-fill dams in the world, operating since the mid-1970s with a generating capacity of 2,805 megawatts.

Some of the ultra-high-voltage equipment in the Mica underground powerhouse is reaching the end of its useful life and as part of an upgrade, leading Canadian utility BC Hydro has decided to replace the plant’s generator step-up (GSU) transformer banks with flexible tank technology to mitigate the risk of tank rupture.

Source: ABB