Rio Tinto Iron Ore (RTIO) is a leading global supplier of iron ore, iron ore pellets, iron ore concentrates as well as a producer of high quality pig iron. RTIO comprises wholly owned subsidiaries and joint venture initiatives including iron ore operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, owned by Hamersley Iron and Robe River, and managed by Pilbara Iron. A quantity of approximately 225 million tonnes of iron ore is mined annually at present by Rio Tinto’s Pilbara operations. By 2015, Rio Tinto plans to reach a capacity of 353 million tonnes per annum from its Pilbara operations.
The Pilbara Generation & Transmission facilities consist of a more than 500 km radial grid with generation at one end and generation and mining load at the other. The main part of the generation (open cycle GTs) is located at the coast, whereas the main load is inland.
The 220 kV line connecting the load area with the coastal generation area contributes active as well as reactive power to the mining load, while its availability is degraded due to outages caused by lightning.
| Main data | |
|---|---|
| System | SVC |
| Commissioning year | 2012 |
| System voltage | 220 kV |
| SVC rating | 75 Mvar inductive to 75 Mvar capacitive (-75/+75 Mvar); -100/+100 Mvar for a duration of one hour |
| Control scheme | Closed-loop, three-phase symmetrical voltage control by means of a voltage regulator |
| Thyristor valves | BCT type thyristors, water cooled, indirect light firing |
| MSC | 2 x 25 Mvar, controlled from the SVC |
