1. Ingeniería

Press
Erlangen, January 30, 2015
Siemens hands over first North Sea grid
connection to TenneT
 A significant step for the German energy transition
 The world's largest direct-current grid connection at 800 megawatts (MW)
has now taken up commercial operation
 The grid connection’s transmission capacity is enough to supply around
one million German households with power
Siemens has handed over the first North Sea grid connection, BorWin2, to its
customer TenneT. The German-Dutch transmission grid operator has accepted the
project following successful completion of test runs by Siemens. The grid connection
is therefore now in commercial operation. 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. 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.
"This is the first offshore grid connection worldwide to take up commercial operation
with efficient direct-current technology. We are proud that Siemens mastered and
completed this demanding and challenging project, despite the many difficulties that
working far out at sea presented", stated Jan Mrosik, CEO of the Siemens Energy
Management Division. "The BorWin2 link is a major contribution to the energy
transition", stressed Lex Hartman, member of the managing board of TenneT TSO
GmbH. "The connection’s capacity of 800 megawatts is equivalent to the capacity
required for supplying one million private households."
The BorWin2 offshore platform is 51 meters wide, 72 meters long, 25 meters high
and, with its baseframe, weighs around 16,000 metric tons. Siemens installed the
Siemens AG
Communications and Government Affairs
Leitung: Stephan Heimbach
Informationsnummer: PR2015010110EMEN
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80333 Munich
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Siemens AG
Press release
platform at this 39-meter-deep North Sea location back in April 2014. The Global
Tech 1 wind farm, with its 80 wind turbines, is linked to BorWin2. Fifty percent of the
grid connection capacity of BorWin2 is available for connection of a second wind
farm.
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. Siemens received its latest order for a grid connection in the North Sea,
BorWin3, in a consortium with Petrofac in the spring of 2014. Commissioning of this
fifth grid connection from Siemens 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.
Thanks to the Siemens high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) technology, transmission
losses for each grid connection, including cable losses, are less than four percent.
This Siemens HVDC technology is installed on the offshore platforms and in the
land-based converter stations. The wind-based electricity is transmitted as
alternating current to the converter platform, transformed into direct current and fed
to the mainland via a subsea cable. The land-based station converts the direct
current back into alternating current and feeds the electricity into the extra-high
voltage grid. HVDC is the only efficient transmission solution for cable lengths of
more than 80 kilometers.
The HVDC Plus technology used by Siemens is less complex and extremely
compact, making it predestined for use in sea-based applications. In contrast to
classic HVDC technology used in a vast majority of land links, systems equipped
with HVDC Plus feature self-stabilization. As fluctuations in the grid must always be
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Siemens AG
Press release
reckoned with for wind-based power generation, grid stability and reliability is
enhanced considerably through the use of the Siemens HVDC Plus technology.
This press release and press photos are available at:
www.siemens.com/press/x-win
More information about the Energy Management Division is available at
www.siemens.com/energy-management
Contact person for journalists:
Stefan Wagner
Phone: +49 89 636632041;
E-mail: [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/siemens_press
Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence,
innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 165 years. The company is active in more than 200
countries, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization. One of the world’s largest producers
of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, Siemens is No. 1 in offshore wind turbine construction, a leading
supplier of combined cycle turbines for power generation, a major provider of power transmission solutions and a
pioneer in infrastructure solutions as well as automation, drive and software solutions for industry. The company is
also a leading provider of medical imaging equipment – such as compted tomography and magnetic resonance
imaging systems – and a leader in laboratory diagnostics as well as clinical IT. In fiscal 2014, which ended on
September 30, 2014, Siemens generated revenue from continuing operations of €71.9 billion and net income of
€5.5 billion. At the end of September 2014, the company had around 357,000 employees worldwide. Further
information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com.
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