The contract for the construction of the new Sete Rios Electrical Traction Substation, in Lisbon, started in November 2022 and it will supply five of the most important railway lines in the Lisbon region (Cascais, Sintra, Cintura, Sul, and Norte).
The new substation, which is part of the renovation and reconversion of the current Cascais Line, which will now be powered at 25kV AC, will start operating in the first quarter of 2025. IP – Infraestruturas de Portugal, the customer and end user of the new substation, awarded the design and construction work to the consortium made up of Efacec, EDP Comercial and FCM Construções.
Under the design-build contract, Efacec, leader of the consortium, will be responsible for supplying a significant part of the electromechanical component, namely the manufacture of three 30MVA transformers, command, control and protection system, as well as the telecommunications system.
All civil construction infrastructure and access to the substation will be carried out, including a railway underpass and, for the first time in Portugal, a system that compensates imbalance in the high voltage substation power supply network using STATCOM technology will be supplied.
In addition to this new project with IP, there are contracts for the traction energy component already in progress: the design-construction project for the new Runa Substation, on the Oeste line (220kV/2 x 25kV – 32MVA) and preventive and corrective maintenance of all traction power infrastructure nationwide (more than 500 installations, including 23 25kV alternating current and 6kV 1,500V direct current traction substations).
Efacec has had a long relationship with this developer since the 1970s, having been responsible for the construction of eight traction substations, corresponding to more than a third of the installations in service, which supply electricity to the catenaries that feed, in a sustainable manner, the trains circulating on the Portuguese railway lines.
