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The first HVAC and HVDC grid connection projects for wind power integration
in German North Sea: experience, challenge and outlook
SUMMARY
Following the legal obligation, TenneT Offshore GmbH (earlier: E.ON Netz Offshore and
transpower offshore gmbh) started to implement grid connections of offshore wind farms
(OWF) in the North Sea since 2006. After the decision of German Federal Government, to
shut down all nuclear power plants until 2022, the task turns more urgent. According to the
expectation of the German government, the offshore installation capacity is estimated to
6.5 GW till 2020, which is adjusted to the actual situation of German offshore wind farms.
As the first cross-border grid operator in Europe, TenneT is contributing to the
“Energiewende” by connecting OWF in the German North Sea to the onshore grid. A lot of
projects of HVAC and HVDC grid connection are now accomplished or under construction
which have the transmission capacity of approx. 6.2 GW (as of January 2014). Further
projects, based on the 320 kV-900 MW-class, are still under tender phase. It is planned to
finalise the tenders in 2014 in order to meet the expectations and the ambition of the German
government. With those projects, TenneT is now the largest utility operating DC VSC
converters and DC XLPE cable technology worldwide.
This publication describes the achieved experience, challenges and outlook of further
development, especially for AC and DC submarine cable technology. Some considerations,
e.g. the quality assurance of the DC XLPE cables, cable installation in environmental-
sensitive area, offshore maintenance etc. will also be discussed in order to indicate the special
problems to be faced by an offshore TSO.
KEYWORDS
XLPE cables, HVAC, HVDC, Wind integration, Germany North Sea, Energiewende, offshore TSO,
offshore maintenance, Standardization
dongping.zhang@tennet.eu
1. Introduction
Following legal obligations based on the German Energy Laws, TenneT Offshore GmbH
(former E.ON Netz Offshore GmbH and transpower offshore gmbh) started with its activities
in offshore grid connection projects in December 2006.
Concerning the transmission capacity, length of the grid transmission systems and other
boundary conditions, there are two general technical variants to be chosen to connect the
OWF to the onshore grid: HVAC and HVDC. For a small transmission capacity and a short
transmission distance, an HVAC link system can generally be realized, i.e. a direct route
between the grid connection point (NAP) of one wind farm and the onshore grid coupling
point (NVP). Enlarging the transmission capacity and/or the transmission distance over an
economical and technical threshold value, then the HVDC variant is preferred for the grid
links [1].
However, the choice of the grid connection variants must be subject to a particular project-
relevant investigation. Especially the development scenario shall be applied as basis for this
investigation. In the summation of the coetaneous demand of transmission capacity, there is a
tendency of utilising high-capacitive HVDC connection systems in the German North Sea.
Figure 1 shows the typical grid connection systems with the application of HVDC VSC
technology. The electrical power generated by wind turbines is collected at the substation of
the OWF and is transmitted to the offshore converter substation via HVAC submarine cables
which have a typical length of up to 30 km. Due to the advantages such as the black-start
capability etc., the HVDC VSC technology will be applied in the offshore converter station
and the onshore converter station which are connected by HVDC XLPE submarine and land
cables.
Figure 1: Typical offshore grid connection with the application of HVDC VSC technology
According to the geographical location of OWF, there are four clusters to be introduced for
the grid integration of offshore wind energy in the German North Sea: BorWin, DolWin,
HelWin and SylWin, which are defined with the allocated high-capacitive transmission routes
and the grid coupling point (NVP) to the 400 kV transmission grids. According to the time
sequence of the projects, the name of the projects will also have one identification number,
e.g. BorWin1, DolWin1 etc. Figure 2 shows the geographical location of the projects and their
onshore NVPs.
1
SylWin1
SylWin2
BorWin2
BorWin3 HelWin2
BorWin1
BorWin4 HelWin1
BorWin5
DolWin1 alpha ventus
DolWin2
DolWin3
DolWin4
Nordergründe
CS Büttel
Riffgat
UW Hagermarsch
UW Inhausen
UW Emden
CS Emden/Ost
CS Diele
CS Dörpen West
Figure 2: Geographical allocation of the cluster connection projects in German North Sea
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AC export cables between the AC substation platform and DC converter platform are not included.
2
Table 1 shows that more than 2600 km DC XLPE cables were installed, produced or in
manufacturing process in the recent six years. Furthermore, there are two DC projects -
BorWin3 and BorWin4 - of 320 kV and 900 MW class, which are in the tender phase as of
January 2014. The huge demand has changed the market dramatically, especially for the cable
technology of DC XLPE.
Figure 3: Mechanical damage on the platform cable due to improper installation work
Also for the cable design, there are some special requirements regarding the offshore
implementation. For example, the cable installed on an offshore platform shall have a semi-
conductive layer for DC HV test after the installation as well as a fire retardant layer beside
the normal PE-sheath. For this, some manufacturers offer so-called “Sandwich”-Oversheath.
In order to minimize the risks of space charge effects in DC XLPE cables, TenneT Offshore
GmbH decided to slightly modify the after-installation-test compared to the CIGRE-
recommendation [3]. The testing voltage is positive polarity on the positive pole and negative
polarity on the negative pole of the cables. In order to determine the discharge on the cable,
especially after the testing, the measurement of residual voltage has also been introduced.
Figure 4: Vibration sword for the cable installation in the Waddensea area
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In TenneT offshore GmbH’s projects, the HDD (Horizontal Direct Drilling) is widely utilized
for the land cables and landing point of submarine cables. Even some drillings with length of
more than 1.500 m were realized, e.g. at the crossing of river Ems and at the landfall.
The vibration sword (Fig. 4), which has less environmental impact, is applied in the German
Waddensea area (World Natural Heritage by UNESCO). The selection of offshore laying and
burial methods and the suitable equipment are also a challenge because the German
authorities have strict requirements for cable burial depths. For this purpose an anchor
penetration test has been performed successfully by TenneT Offshore GmbH and has been
adapted by the Authorities. As remedial measurement of post-laying, the Mass Flow
Excavator (MFE) has been used for some sections of the cable route. But it is questionable
whether this method can also be applied for DC XLPE live cables. Until today there is no
experience and no investigation of the cooling shock effect and the thereby caused overstress
on the cable insulation and the semi-conductive screens.
Different cable locating systems have been tested to ensure the horizontal and vertical
position of the submarine cables to fulfil the requirement of the authorities.
It is well-known that it is not realistic to dimension the HVAC export cables of OWF and
HVDC cluster cables with a 100% load factor. Instead it is well accepted to calculate the
current rating of those cables with load factors based on wind load statistics. However the 2K-
criteria [5] - the special requirement of the German authorities for minimizing the thermal
environmental impact – has also a significant influence on the cable dimensioning. The
requirements introduced by TenneT Offshore GmbH for the cable current rating are:
1) The whole cable route must be capable to transmit 100% load without considering the
2K-criteria;
2) The wind load based on the wind statistics derived from the FINO 1 measurement
platform in the German North Sea shall be applied for the calculation of the
transmission capacity without violating the 2K-criteria.
To verify the compliance with the 2K-criteria, a temperature monitoring system has been
5
installed [6] in two morphologic different areas of the Waddensea near Hilgenriedersiel:
Mischwatt (mixed sediment mudflat) and Sandwatt (sand flat) - . Temperature measurements
and load data from alpha ventus are now available for more than 18 months of operation.
Both, temperature measurements and calculations based on the load of alpha ventus, show
that the 2K-criterion is never violated, and that there is a large safety margin even during
strongest wind load phase. The calculations are based both on the IEC-standard - which is
also part of the approval system of the German authorities [5] - and FEM-methods (Fig. 5).
Temperature increase in Mischwatt and Sandwatt, measurement depth: 15 cm
0.8
calculation
24 h mean Mischwatt
24 h mean Sandwatt
0.6
0.4
Temperature [°C]
0.2
−0.2
−0.4
−0.6
Dec−20−2011 Jul−07−2012 Jan−23−2013 Jun−26−2013
2.5
Temperature [°C]
1.5
0.5
Dec−20−2011 Jul−07−2012 Jan−23−2013 Jun−26−2013
The comparison of the calculation results based on IEC 60853-2 and the temperature
measurements demonstrates the validity of the calculation method in burial depths of at least
1 m where the seasonal variation is slight (Fig. 7). At less laying depth the environmental
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impact increases and dominates the temperature variation (Fig. 6).
Figure 8 shows the typical forced energy unavailability of offshore grid connection. It is
obvious that the offshore DC cables play the dominate role for the forced outage of an
offshore DC grid connection system.
Offshore DC Cable
Main Circuit Onshore
Onshore DC cables
Air Cooling System…
Auxiliary Power…
Valve Cooling…
Control & Protection
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
Figure 8: Example of forced energy unavailability, contribution per system
Therefore, the planning of the spare parts, particularly for the offshore DC cable, is crucial.
Generally the spare parts for the offshore cables are planned for two repairs.
Normally, the demand of spare cable length for one repair is about three times of the water
depth of the cable location. For German North Sea with water depth less than 50 m, this
would yield in a theoretical spare length of 150 m per cable failure. But due to different
uncertainties, e.g. inaccuracy of fault location, layout of the applied repair ship, unexpected
longitudinal water ingress etc., a longer spare cable should be planned and kept in whole
length without any pre-cutting.
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It is also estimated that the research work will be performed for the behaviour of water-tree
under DC voltage, especially for the whole service life of 30-40 years. For example, the task
could be to identify not only the qualitative but also the quantitative allowable volume of
moisture in the insulation and the semi-conductive screens of DC XLPE cables.
Moreover, the possibility of DC High Voltage tests combined with the partial discharge
measurement shall be verified, especially for the FAT and the After-Installation-Test.
Due to the difficulty of the transportation of the traditional resonance equipment to an
offshore platform, the suitable test method for the long offshore cable linked between offshore
platforms shall be further investigated, e.g. VLF test method or a shippable resonance test
equipment. Till today, only the soak-test (24 hours at U0) is technically and economically
feasible for those HV submarine cables.
As well known, the offshore bad weather impinges on the duration of submarine cable repair.
The new repair method is estimated with the minimized influence by bad weather.
Innovative solutions can be anticipated, such as cable temperature monitoring system, cable
failure monitoring system, cable failure location system (online and offline) especially for
submarine cable system with a cable route more than 100 km where it is not possible to
integrate repeaters with external power supply.
Of course, it is also to anticipate that new DC XLPE material will be introduced with the
higher voltage, e.g. 500 kV. But as above mentioned reason, it is recommended to expand the
operation and service experience firstly.
It is also estimated to a market development of operation services of the offshore grid
systems. More offers and service providers could be expected, such as the cable repair, cable
route survey, platform maintenance etc., due to an increasing number of OWFs and grid
connection systems in the German North Sea and in Europe.
In order to enlarge the number of the suppliers, new TenneT projects, starting with BorWin3,
have been split into different lots based on the experience of the previous projects. Therefore
all project implementation phases (milestones of the project) of the grid connection systems
and also the maintenance in the prospective operation must be further standardized, especially
the interfaces between the system components, e.g. platforms, converter stations and cable
systems etc. shall be further clearly defined and verified.
5. Summary
As the only TSO, which has made huge investment in offshore grid connection infrastructure
based on new technologies, such as HVDC VSC and DC XLPE cables, in the last six years,
TenneT Offshore GmbH has gathered plenty of experience during the project execution and
operation phase and will face enormous challenges still.
It is necessary to extend and modify the international standards according to the special
requirements of the offshore grid connection system, especially for DC XLPE cables.
DC XLPE cables with a voltage level above 300 kV shouldn’t be treated as an immature
technology. However, in comparison with AC-technology, especially with regard to decades
of experience in operation, this technology is still in development. The sharing of knowledge,
know-how and experience between suppliers, research institutions and utilities will promote
and accelerate this development.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Dr. D. Zhang, Dr. T. J. Lebioda, Dr. Masoumeh Koochack-Zadeh and Dr. Jochen Jung:
“The First Three 800 MW Wind Park Grid Connection Projects with XLPE HVDC Cables”,
10th International Workshop on Large Scale Integration of Wind Power and on Transmission
Networks for offshore Wind Farms, Aarhus, 2011, Paper-No. WIW11-023
[2] CIGRE TB 490 Recommendations for Testing of Long AC Submarine Cables with Extruded
Insulation for System Voltage above 30 (36) to 500 (550) kV, Feb. 2012
[3] CIGRE TB 496 Recommendations for Testing DC Extruded Cable Systems for Power
Transmission at a Rated Voltage up to 500 kV, April 2012
[4] CIGRE TB 303 REVISION OF QUALIFICATION PROCEDURES FOR HV AND EHV AC
EXTRUDED UNDERGROUND CABLE SYSTEMS, August 2006
[5] Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH), Standard Konstruktive Ausführung von
Offshore-Windenergieanlagen, 2007; http://www.bsh.de/
[6] Bioconsult, Schuchardt & Scholle GbR, Temperaurmonitoring - Einbau der Sonden und erste
Datenauslesung