Virginia Smith Converter Station is a

high-voltage direct current A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system (also called a power superhighway or an electrical superhighway) uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating curre ...

(HVDC) back-to-back

converter station An HVDC converter station (or simply converter station) is a specialised type of substation which forms the terminal equipment for a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line.Arrillaga, Jos; High Voltage Direct Current Transmission, se ...

near

Sidney, Nebraska Sidney is a city in and the county seat of Cheyenne County, Nebraska, United States. The city is north of the Colorado state line. The population was 6,757 at the 2010 census. History The city was named for Sidney Dillon, president of the Uni ...

. Completed in 1988, it is significant for being the first interchange between eastern and western United States electrical grids. The station can transfer a maximum power of 200

megawatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wat ...

and the

voltage Voltage, also known as electric pressure, electric tension, or (electric) potential difference, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a static electric field, it corresponds to the work needed per unit of charge to ...

used is 55.5 kV. The facility was named for former

Congresswoman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

Virginia Smith, a

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

who represented

Nebraska's 3rd congressional district Nebraska's 3rd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Nebraska that encompasses its western three-fourths; it is one of the largest non-at-large districts in the country, covering nearly , two time zones and 68 c ...

from 1975 to 1991. Virginia Smith Converter Station was built by Siemens. A plaque commemorating the achievement is located in the atrium of the

Western Area Power Administration As one of the four power marketing administrations within the U.S. Department of Energy, the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA)'s role is to market wholesale hydropower generated at 57 hydroelectric federal dams operated by the Bureau of R ...

headquarters building in Lakewood, Colorado. Timing differences in continental-sized nations make national power grids based solely on conventional alternating current impossible. However, power can be transferred over longer distances and between separate AC grids by conversion to direct current during transmission, and conversion to alternating current in phase with the local line frequency at the delivery point. By the early 21st century, high-power semiconductors began to make the more difficult DC-to-AC conversion technically and economically possible at the high power levels needed in power grids.

References

Buildings and structures in Cheyenne County, Nebraska Electric power transmission systems in the United States Energy infrastructure in Nebraska Converter stations Energy infrastructure completed in 1988 {{US-powerstation-stub