Transmission & Distribution Technology
transmission capacity between the countries by a factor of three – increasing it from 350MW to 1000MW. Tis project plays an important role in the integration of energy markets between Baltic and Scandinavian countries, opening up access to renewable energy sources and generating revenue resources. It is also a significant step towards meeting the goals of the EU’s Baltic energy market interconnection plan (BEMIP) which aims to integrate Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with EU transmission networks and energy markets. Overall the EstLink 2 project spans 170km. Power is transmitted over about 14km of overhead line in Finland, about 145km of submarine cable laid on the bottom of the Gulf of Finland, and approximately 11 km of underground land cable in Estonia.
Monopolar connection Siemens was responsible for designing the HVDC system as a monopolar connection with metallic return conductor. Tis turnkey project included delivering, installing and commissioning of the complete HVDC converter stations, excluding the overhead line and power cable part in between the stations. Te total value of the converter station turnkey project was €100 million, about a third of the total EstLink2 interconnection budget. In the UK, National Grid Nemo Link has been granted planning permission from Tanet and Dover District Councils to go ahead with developments at the former Richborough power station site in Kent. Tese include plans for an electricity substation,
a converter station and underground cables between Richborough and Pegwell Bay on the English channel coast. By 2018 Nemo hopes to have in place the first electricity link between the UK and Belgium. Running 130km from Richborough to Zeebrugge, the subsea
cables would allow 1000MW of electricity to be traded between the two countries. Mark Pearce, project director for National Grid
said: “Interconnectors will have an important role in diversifying the sources of electricity for this country and helping to keep our supplies secure. It will also help create a competitive European market.”
Integrated power market In a separate move, UK energy minister Ed Davey has claimed that the only way Britain can benefit from US-style low energy prices is by creating a totally integrated power market across Europe. In an interview with UK newspaper The
Independent, Davey said there was an urgent need to build a giant network of electricity interconnectors across Europe, allowing vast amounts of energy to be moved between countries, driving down prices. “Literally in the last three or four years, there has been a complete change in the differential between the North American price for gas and energy and the EU price for gas and energy. Tat represents a strategic change in the terms of trade and is very significant. Te EU needs to respond to this very quickly,” he said. He called on the EU to do much more to fast- track plans for a continent-wide energy network, saying British and European manufacturers risked being left behind by US rivals which were exploiting cheap energy from its shale gas boom to improve productivity. “We need much better grid interconnectors around
Europe to enable energy to flow across the EU. Connect the UK with mainland Europe and different parts of the periphery of Europe with central Europe. We need Eastern and Central Europe to be better connected with Germany and France and we need the Iberian peninsula to be better connected through France,” he added. l
A EU funding for ultraconductive copper wire project
consortium of 14 companies and universities has signed a €3.3 million funding contract to
bring ultraconductive copper, a material that conducts electricity better than any known electrical conductor, within three years to a level where pilot manufacturing can be planned. The project, known as Ultrawire,
is part funded through the European Commission’s FP7 programme and partly by the consortium members. These include Cambridge University,
KME Germany, University of Aalto at Helsinki, AGH Krakow University of Science and Technology, Peugeot
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Citroen Automobiles, Wieland-Werke, the European Copper Institute (ECI) and Nexans France. “We are exploiting forefront European
carbon manufacturing technology and transferring exciting new materials into industry,” says Dr Krzysztof Koziol, head of the electric carbon nanomaterials research group in the department of materials science and metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. Koziol is the project coordinator and the leading contact with the EC for the Ultrawire project. “The copper industry’s participation
in this project reflects the importance the industry places on improving the
sustainability of its products through increased resource efficiency,” says John Schonenberger, chief executive of the ECI. “The EU has extremely ambitious carbon dioxide emission reduction targets for 2050 and the necessary transition toward electricity, as the primary source of energy, will require significant quantities of highly- efficient conductor materials. “While this technology is in the
very early stages of development, with many significant hurdles to cross, ultraconductive copper would bring about a step change in the end-use performance obtainable from one tonne of copper," he added. l
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