2005-10-04 - Gunnar Asplund, the ABB engineer who led the development of HVDC Light, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.
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Asplund, who is responsible for research and development in HVDC Light (high-voltage direct current), will be honored on November 18 at the Stockholm City Hall. The Royal Insititute of Technology - in Swedish, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan - was founded in 1827 and is the country's largest technical university.
In his ongoing 35-year career at ABB, Asplund has spearheaded several pioneering initiatives. With 25 patents to his credit - many of them in HVDC Light - he is considered the father of the technology and has authored, or co-authored, more than 25 related technical papers.
Asplund was commissioning manager of the Itaipu HVDC transmission project in Brazil from 1982 - 1985 – at the time, the largest-ever HVDC transmission project.
”Gunnar is the originator of many of the pioneering innovations within HVDC," said Sten Jakobsson, President of ABB in Sweden. "His nomination to honorary doctor by the Royal Institute of Technology confirms the importance of the cooperation between universities and industry in the promotion of future innovations.”
HVDC research
In the early 1990's Asplund spearheaded research into an HVDC-specialized voltage source convertor. Based on his proposal, ABB sponsored a development project and Asplund and his team solved the uneven voltage-distribution problem of series-connected transistors (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors or IGBT), making it possible to use them in high voltage applications.
They also proposed the circuitry of the Voltage Source Converters (VSC) that ABB uses today, overcoming several technical difficulties.
“Working in research has been very interesting,” Asplund said. “One of the best things with HVDC is that you can spend your whole working life without learning everything, as it consists of so many different areas of technology and activity.”
HVDC technology led to the development of HVDC Light, and Asplund in recent years has played a critical role in implementing several HVDC Light projects, including the Troll A gas platform in Norway commissioned this month, the Cross Sound project in the USA, Hellsjon and Gotland projects in Sweden, and Directlink and Murraylink in Australia.
Lead designer
He was a lead designer of specialized thyristor valves, a Thyristor Control Unit and voltage source converters – all serving to make HVDC state-of-the-art technology.
Within ABB, Asplund is a known as a source of innovation and inspiration to others. He is also known among ABB’s academic partners as a supporter of their related research. At academic institutions like KTH Asplund has spearheaded collaborations with the electrical power industry.
"I think it is a very important that there exist an institution in society that can search for knowledge without having to produce results that can earn money in the short term," Asplund said. "This makes it a great honor to become a honorary doctor - and will make my academic engagement even stronger.” Asplund added that original research and talented research teams are one of ABB's enduring strengths.
In the beginning
Completing his MSc at Lund University in Sweden, Asplund started his engineering career at Asea in Ludvika, Sweden, in 1970. He worked in power transformers until 1975, spearheading thyristor valve design until 1981. In the early 1980s he took a three-year posting in Brazil to oversee the Itaipu dam project, and returned to Ludvika in 1985 to head HVDC system design.
When Asea merged with Brown Boveri to form ABB in 1988, he was project manager for the global company’s HVDC research center in Ludvika. He has been in charge of project development since 1993.
Asplund and his wife Barbro still live in Ludvika where they raised three children, Daniel 33, Anna, 31, and Emil, 27.