Siemens has handed over the first North Sea grid connection, BorWin2, to TenneT following successful completion of test runs.
The offshore platform of the BorWin2 grid connection is located around 100 kilometers off the German coast – northwest of the island of Borkum, after which the project was named.
“This is the first offshore grid connection worldwide to take up commercial operation with efficient direct-current technology,” stated Jan Mrosik, CEO of the Siemens Energy Management Division.
With this grid connection it is now possible to transmit 800 MW of clean electricity from wind power, enough to supply around one million German households.
Back in April 2014, Siemens installed the 16,000-ton platform at 39-meter-deep North Sea location.
The network operator TenneT contracted the consortium consisting of Siemens and the Italian cable specialist Prysmian for the BorWin2 offshore grid connection in summer 2010. Siemens is now implementing five North Sea grid connection projects for TenneT: HelWin1 (576 MW) and HelWin2 (690 MW) off of Helgoland, BorWin2 (800 MW) and BorWin3 (900 MW) off of Borkum and SylWin1 (864 MW) off of Sylt.
The next three grid connections, Sylwin1, HelWin1 and HelWin2, are nearly completed and are scheduled to take up commercial operation in the first half of 2015. Commissioning of this fifth grid connection, BorWin3, is scheduled for 2019. The grid connections implemented by Siemens for TenneT will have a total transmission capacity of more than 3.8 gigawatts (GW), providing electricity from offshore wind power to supply around five million households.