Siemens has handed over the HelWin2 offshore grid link in the German North Sea to the transmission operator TenneT.
The 690-megawatt high-voltage direct current connection hub is the fourth such system Siemens has completed and brought into commercial operation.
The latest link is expected to evacuate power from E.On’s 288-MW Amrumbank wind farm. Dutch supplier Heerema Fabrication Group built the converter platform.
HelWin2 is an important step in the implementation of Germany’s offshore development goals, according to TenneT board member Lex Hartman.
German government is targeting offshore capacity of 6.5GW by 2020. And TenneT has already achieved more than 50 percent of this target, a statement says.
Italian cable specialist Prysmian partnered with Siemens on the order, and developed 576MW HelWin1, 800MW BorWin2 and 864MW SylWin1.
The grid connections HelWin1 and HelWin2, BorWin2 and SylWin1 have been in commercial operation. And BorWin3, the fifth grid connection, is slated to go online in 2019.
The links will take the wind power generated offshore to about five million households. They systems are equipped to reduce transmission losses through the use of high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission technology. The technology has brought the losses over the links that have deployed them to less than four percent.
Ajith Kumar S