ABB, a power and automation engineering group, declared that it has contracted an order valued around $1 billion from TenneT, the Dutch-German transmission grid operator, to provide power connectivity to link offshore located North Sea wind farms to the mainland grid of Germany.
HVDC Light offshore converter station (BorWin alpha) - Credit: ABB
ABB will install an offshore HVDC (high-voltage direct current) structure with a rating of more than 900 MW maintaining power losses below 1% per each converter station. The link when completed will provide renewable wind generated power to over 1.5 million houses.
The company will formulate, construct, supply and erect the required offshore platform, converter stations at the offshore as well as at onshore and cable systems to be laid under the sea and over the land. The HVDC light transmission technology developed by the company will convey the power generated from the Gode Wind II 400 MW and other located wind farms to a HVDC converter station placed offshore which in turn transports the power to the on onshore HVDC station located at Dörpen on the German coast by using 135 km length cables laid underwater and underground. A converter station maintained Dörpen will then feed the received power to the mainland grid.
The HVDC technology of ABB utilizes dense type of converter stations and benefits the ecology with neutral electromagnetic fields. The technology is more suited to link remotely located offshore wind farms with inland power networks with minimum level of power loss. The offshore wind generation facility has been slated to become functional in 2015 and will generate enough power to offset over three million tons of carbon dioxide discharges every year by substituting with fossil fuel generated electricity.