Prysmian secures BorWin2 project for the grid connection of offshore wind farms in the North Sea

The contract, worth well more than € 200 M, sets a milestone as the first ever ± 300 kV extruded HVDC and the first 800 MW grid connection for offshore wind parks.

07/09/2010 - 02:00 AM

Prysmian has been awarded a major project worth well in excess of € 200 million by the German transmission system operator transpower - a subsidiary of the Dutch grid operator TenneT - for the grid connection project BorWin2 linking two offshore wind farms in the North Sea to mainland Germany.
Prysmian will provide complete supply, installation and commissioning of the submarine and land cable connections as part of a larger contract worth more than half a billion Euro, awarded to the consortium between Prysmian and Siemens Energy. Siemens will deliver the Voltage Sourced Converter (VSC) system, with an accordant capacity of 800 MW. The turnkey connection will link the Offshore Wind Parks Veja Mate and Global Tech 1, located 125 km offshore, to the mainland with the purpose of transmitting wind generated renewable power into the German Grid.

The project sets a number of milestones in the industry as it will be the first commercial ± 300 kV DC cable project using extruded technology (highest direct current voltage level ever reached), the first 800 MW connection to offshore wind parks and the largest VSC system with a capacity of 800 MW. The project shall use extruded HVDC cable technology from Prysmian together with Siemens HVDC Plus® converter technology at the offshore platform and onshore stations. The HVDC connection supplied by Prysmian shall comprise of ± 300 kV DC subsea and land cable types along around 125 km submarine plus around 75 km land route (around 200 km in total) to the land converter station in Diele, near Papenburg. Extruded 155 kV HVAC submarine cable connections for a total length of around 39 km shall complete the connections from the offshore wind park transformer platforms to the offshore converter platform.

The submarine cables will be manufactured in the Prysmian factory in Arco Felice, Italy with the land cables being manufactured in the Prysmian factory in Delft, the Netherlands. Installation will be performed with Prysmian’s own cable laying vessel, the Giulio Verne (with the largest operation capacity in the world), as well as utilizing other specialized vessels for various operations, such as those in shallow waters. The HVDC connection is planned to commence operation in 2013.

Over the decades Prysmian has developed a wide range of state-of-the-art products and technologies for both HVDC power transmission and the wind power transmission and distribution sector. This new contract further underlines the Group’s leading position in the supply of submarine cables. It also proves - once more - the validity of the know-how and the technologies developed by Prysmian in the sector and the commitment to support the development of smarter and greener power grids throughout the world. The Group’s leading position in this high added value market segments is also confirmed by other major projects in which Prysmian has been recently involved in the field of both HVDC power transmission (TransBay Cable in San Francisco) and offshore wind parks (Walney, Ormonde, Gunfleet Sands, Thanet and Greater Gabbard in the UK and Alpha Ventus in Germany).