Transmission & Distribution Technology
In Germany, TenneT and Mitsubishi Corporation have officially sealed their partnership with respect to two offshore high-voltage cable projects, BorWin1 and BorWin2. Mitsubishi’s voting interest will be 49 per cent with aggregate maximum equity commitment of €240 million. At the same time both partners signed a contract for an investment in two more offshore projects named HelWin2 and DolWin2 in which Mitsubishi also will acquire a 49p er cent voting interest for a maximum equity investment of €336 million.
Te planned high-voltage cables, involving a total
investment of €2.9 billion, will connect a number of offshore wind farms in the German North Sea to the onshore electricity grid and will have a combined total capacity of 2.8GW, representing close to 30 per cent of the total ambition of the German government for offshore wind in the North Sea. Mel Kroon, ceo of TenneT, said: “Tis is an
important step for our long-term partnership with Mitsubishi Corporation. I am pleased that we managed to come to a final close shortly after the recent announcement of necessary improvements of the German Energy Law, which was enacted 1 January 2013. Tis is an excellent result of a constructive cooperation between our teams.” Currently TenneT is operating two and working on eight further projects to connect wind farms in the German North Sea. Tese essential infrastructure projects total a transport capacity of 5.3 GW of renewable electricity, equivalent to the consumption of five million households. With these projects TenneT has committed almost €6 billion in offshore infrastructure. In terms of DC projects, these are: BorWin1
(400MW), BorWin2 (800MW), DolWin1 (800MW), DolWin2 (900MW), HelWin1 (576MW), HelWin2 (690MW), and SylWin1 (864MW). Te other two projects – Nordergrunde (111 MW) and Riffgat (108MW) – are AC projects.
Linking Georgia and Turkey On 26 February, Georgia’s minister of energy and natural resources visited Akhaltsikhe substation and observed the progress of Black Sea Transmission Network project. Tis will eventually link Georgia and Turkey’s networks. His visit highlights the importance of the power
network to Georgia: it will enhance stability of power system operation and electricity losses will be decreased; the mains network will be strengthened; and future emergencies in the capital and east region will be avoided. Te link will also enable the country to export surplus electricity to its neighbours during summer period and to import it when needed. Te project has been fully executed on the Georgian side and work in Turkey should be finalised in the next few months. Akhaltsikhe substation will be commissioned following this. When complete, the project will involve 292 km
of power lines, plus the only HVDC station in the Caucasus region. Georgian state companies Electrosystem and Energotrans began work on the project in 2011 with Siemens Austria and Siemens Germany responsible for construction and installation. Te contract price for the substation and HVDC station is €159 million, with the overall project cost €321 million. For its part, Turkey is actively seeking membership
of the Electricity Network of Transmission System Operators of Europe (ENTSO-E) which will allow the two countries eventually to export and import electricity throughout the whole of Europe.
Demand response Honeywell and Opower have introduced new technology that will help utilities attract more homeowners to voluntary programmes that curb the demand for electricity, and help create a stable and effective energy grid without new power plants. Te Energy Management Platform drives programme
S First energy storage on a low voltage network
wansea, UK-based S&C Electric Company Europe and Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution
(SSEPD) have commissioned an innovative new pilot energy storage project in the UK.
The pilot employs stored energy from
batteries to help mitigate the effects of low carbon devices on the low voltage (LV) network and is in part funded by electricity regulator OFGEM’s low carbon networks (LCN) fund. Based at the SSEPD eco-home project Zero Carbon Homes in Slough, the pilot
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www.engineerlive.com
will consist of three single-phase 25kWh lithium-ion batteries connected at a strategic point on the LV network. S&C’s PureWave Community Energy Storage (CES) integrates these batteries to the grid enabling them to switch on and off from the grid when required, managing charging and discharging of the batteries. The batteries will be utilised to spread demand and generation loads at different times throughout the day. The batteries can provide real or reactive power to aid with voltage regulation, too. During the pilot project, SSEPD will
model and analyse the benefits that energy storage can provide to a LV network. Adding a variety of low carbon technologies such as solar photovoltaic and electric vehicles to the network can necessitate building a bigger network to cope with the demand – ie network reinforcements. However, this can be costly and has associated long lead times. The purpose of the pilot project is to prove that the batteries can perform the same function as a traditional reinforcement and hence there is an economic case for installing energy storage systems. ●
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