Transmission & Distribution Technology
In another North Sea development, Siemens has completed installation of the offshore platform for the direct-current connection HelWin2. Working under contract from the
German-Dutch grid operator TenneT, Siemens says it has achieved a milestone in German grid connection projects. “We have now installed three high-tech platforms for TenneT in the North Sea. Te HelWin2 project is now in the homestretch to begin operation in the coming year,” said Jan Mrosik, CEO of the company’s Power Transmission and Smart Grid divisions. Te newly installed HelWin2 platform lies 35km north of the island after which it was named, Heligoland, directly adjacent to the HelWin1 platform Siemens erected in August 2013. In April 2014 Siemens completed the BorWin2 platform off the coast of Borkum. In total, Siemens is building five North Sea grid connections for TenneT. Te first four are to begin commercial operation successively over the rest of 2014 and the first half of 2015, and in sum total provide transmission capacity of over 2.9 GW. Te fifth connection recently ordered, BorWin3, is to be ready for operation in 2019. Using the Siemens technology installed on the platforms, the alternating current power generated by the wind turbines is transformed into direct current for efficient transmission to the mainland. At the associated land-based stations, the
electricity generated by the connected wind farms is converted back into the alternating current power required for feeding into the transmission grid. Transmission losses are less than 4%. Te platforms are designed to operate for decades in the rough North Sea conditions, and are fully automated. Te HelWin2 platform was constructed and installed by Heerema. Te marine and land-based cabling was supplied and laid by the cable specialist Prysmian Group. Meanwhile TenneT has installed its sixth HVDC offshore platform in the German part of the North Sea. Te SylWin alpha converter platform is located approximately 70km to the west of the island of Sylt (after which the platform is named) and has a capacity of 864MW for bringing offshore wind energy onshore. At present, the platform is the most powerful installation in the North Sea for converting alternating current into direct current. “We have erected two platforms in quick succession that will provide around 1.5GW of additional capacity for feeding offshore wind energy into the onshore grid,” said Wilfried Breuer, offshore director at TenneT. Te five platforms erected since the autumn of 2013 will be ready to transport approximately 3.7GW of offshore wind energy to the onshore grid, starting in the first quarter of 2015. Te other connections already constructed add a further 0.6 GW of transmission capacity. l
Prysmian lands Greek interconnector role P
rysmian Group has won a €95 million (£76 million) order for an interconnector to link the island of Sryos and the mainland power transmission system in
Lavrion, Greece. The contract was awarded by IPTO, the transmission system operator of the Greek electricity network. The project involves the design, supply and installation
of a turn-key high voltage alternating current (HVAC) cable system designed to transmit a power of 200MVA and consisting of 150kV cables and associated fibre optic cable system along a total route of more than 110km. 108km of this will be underwater, the remaining 2km on land. The system is being designed in such a way as to allow other nearby islands such as Paros, Mykonos and Tinos eventually to join the same network. The cables will be manufactured at the Arco Felice
plant in Naples, Italy, in 2015. Installation is expected to be complete in 2016.
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www.engineerlive.com “The Cyclades project further highlights Prysmian’s
strategic role in supporting the realisation of the important development plans in the field of power grid interconnections,” said Massimo Battaini, Prysmian Powerlink CEO. Prysmian has a long-standing track record in the
development of submarine interconnection milestone projects in the entire Mediterranean region, such as Italy- Greece, Sardinia-Italian Peninsula, two interconnections between Spain and Morocco, two projects in the Balearic islands (Spanish Mainland to Majorca and Ibiza to Majorca) and the Dardanelles in Turkey. The Group is also a founding member of the industrial
partnership Medgrid, launched to study the feasibility of a high-voltage direct current interconnection project to transmit electricity from solar or wind power plants to load centres on either rim of the Mediterranean. l
University of Edinburgh and University of Oxford research indicates that the Pentland Firth’s tidal stream has vast energy potential, with ocean currents estimated at five metres per second. This is among the fastest in the British Isles. Forming partnerships will be be key to developing commercial-scale tidal power
Two-thirds of the 2020 German target for offshore wind energy will be achieved next year. Platforms currently being built in the North Sea are designed to operate for decades
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