Delivering a 50 percent boost in electricity supplied to the city from outside, the new HVDC link strengthens grid resilience, accelerates renewable integration, and sets a global benchmark for urban transmission
Hitachi Energy, a global technology leader in electrification, and Adani Energy Solutions Ltd. (AESL), India’s largest private sector power transmission and distribution company, have successfully commissioned one of the world’s largest high-voltage direct current (HVDC) city center infeed in Mumbai, increasing power supply coming from outside the city by 50 percent.
Injecting up to 1,000 megawatts (MW) of reliable, secure, and clean power directly into one of the world’s most densely populated megacities, the new HVDC link delivers a step-change in Mumbai’s energy resilience. The Kudus-Aarey connection significantly strengthens the city’s transmission infrastructure, supporting the daily needs of more than 20 million people.
One of the world’s largest urban HVDC infeeds, delivering 1,000 MW of renewable energy. Powered by Hitachi Energy’s Voltage Source Converter (VSC) HVDC technology, the link delivers precise, fast control of power flow, improved voltage stability, and enhanced grid reliability in a city where space is scarce. The Aarey converter station upgrade marks the city’s most significant grid modernization in nearly 25 years, boosting the grid capacity from 250 to 1,000 megawatts (MW) and directly reinforcing the city’s energy stability and resilience, thus ensuring energy security
“The HVDC city center infeed is a critical enabler of the Mumbai Climate Action Plan, strengthening the city’s ability to integrate renewable energy and build a more resilient, futureready grid,” said Kandarp Patel, CEO, Adani Energy Solutions Ltd. “By expanding access to clean power, this project supports the city’s decarbonization goals and ensures that homes, businesses, transport systems, and digital infrastructure have the reliable, low-carbon electricity they need to grow.”
Urban innovation: overcoming Mumbai’s constraints. Delivering this milestone project in the heart of a busy megacity demanded exceptional execution capability. Building a major transmission interface within tight urban constraints required precise coordination of construction and logistics, a challenge intensified by Mumbai’s monsoon seasons. The converter station was engineered with an extremely compact footprint and supplied through a configuration combining overhead lines and underground HVDC cables, which freed approximately 2 square kilometers of urban territory – equivalent to approximately 280 football fields1 or more than 100 cricket fields2.
“The Mumbai HVDC city center infeed demonstrates Hitachi Energy’s capability in delivering mission-critical, technically complex, and space-constrained transmission infrastructure for some of the world’s largest population centers,” said Niklas Persson, CEO, Grid Integration Business Unit, Hitachi Energy. “With our pioneering HVDC technology at its core, this project feeds reliable, secure electricity into Mumbai – powering its fast-growing economy, digital infrastructure, rising data center demand, industries, and daily lives.”
“The commissioning of the Mumbai HVDC city infeed is a moment of immense pride for Hitachi Energy,” said N Venu, Managing Director and CEO, Hitachi Energy India Limited. “This project pushes the boundaries of what transmission technology can achieve in one of the world’s most complex urban environments. Our teams in India have delivered a breakthrough that brings cleaner, more reliable power to millions of people, showcasing how innovation made in India is shaping the nation’s energy future.”
The project is supplied through the Kudus grid connection with power imported from outside the city, including renewable energy from generation regions of Maharashtra and renewable-rich nodes across India’s national grid. With its compact footprint, ability to transmit power through underground cables in constrained corridors, and inherent advantages in managing power congestion, pollution, acoustical and electrical noise, power quality, and control, the incity HVDC application provides a scalable model for other Indian cities and global megacities facing similar multiplying power demand as well as land permitting and grid integration challenges.
