Hyosung lands Brazil transformer deal, grid-tech partnership

The South Korean company will supply six 500-kilovolt transformers to Andritz Hydro, a global hydropower equipment and services provider, to consumption at the Foz do Areia hydropower plant in Parana, Brazil.

Andritz Hydro accounts to greater than 25 percent of Brazil's hydropower capacity and has been a key partner to the country's major power generators to three decades. Brazil generates greater than 60 percent of its electricity from hydropower, has the world's second-largest hydropower capacity, and is expanding power generation to meet rising demand, the company said.

The two companies also signed a memorandum of understanding to co-develop a system they call "hybrid STATCOM," or static synchronous compensator, combining Hyosung's STATCOM methodology with Andritz Hydro's synchronous condenser.

The two are seen as complementary, with STATCOMs using power electronics to respond rapidly to voltage swings while synchronous condensers consumption rotating machinery to provide grid inertia, particularly useful to managing renewables like wind and solar.

Hyosung and Andritz Hydro said they aim to build a prolonged partnership positioning both companies as leaders in Latin America's market to grid-stability solutions.