Siemens has handed over HelWin2, the fourth North Sea grid link, to the customer TenneT. This marks the start of commercial operation of the grid connection by the German-Dutch transmission grid operator.
There are now four Siemens grid links with a transmission capacity of over 2.9 gigawatts (GW) installed in the North Sea which together are capable of supplying around four million German households with electricity.
The offshore platform HelWin2 alone, which has just gone online, can transmit up to 690 megawatts (MW) of green electricity, enough to supply nearly 900,000 German households. The offshore platform of the HelWin2 link is located about 85 kilometers off the northwest coast of the island of Helgoland from which it takes its name.
The connected wind farm will be successively expanded and connected with Siemens wind turbines of the 3.6 megawatt class, with additional turbines being linked in practically every day.
Transmission grid operator TenneT awarded the consortium consisting of Siemens and Italian cable specialist Prysmian the order to deliver the offshore grid links for HelWin1 (576 MW) and HelWin2 (690 MW) off Helgoland, BorWin2 (800 MW) off Borkum and SylWin1 (864 MW) off Sylt. All four North Sea grid links are now in normal operation and transporting electricity generated out at sea onto land with low losses.
Siemens received its latest order for a grid connection in the North Sea, BorWin3, in the spring of 2014 in a consortium with Petrofac. This fifth Siemens grid link is due to go into commercial operation in 2019. After it is commissioned, the five installed Siemens network grids will have a total transmission capacity of 3.8 gigawatts and will transport offshore wind power for supplying theoretically nearly five million households.