ABB commissions DolWin1 offshore wind grid project

ABB Dowlin platform

ABB has commissioned the DolWin1 offshore wind grid connection – with the 800 MW High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) link — to the Dutch-German transmission system operator TenneT.

The HVDC link connects offshore wind farms around 75 kilometers off the German coast in the DolWin cluster, with the country’s transmission grid.

The DolWin1 grid connection, which can integrate 800 MW of offshore wind power, enough to supply around one million households with clean energy, is part of Germany’s energy transition roadmap, which foresees the generation of more than 6.5 GW from offshore wind by 2020 and 15 GW by 2030.

ABB has deployed its Voltage Source Converter (VSC) technology, called HVDC Light, for the project. The company handled the design, engineering supply and installation of the offshore and onshore converter stations, as well as the submarine and underground cable systems.

The company connected the wind farm Borkum West II and the wind farm Borkum Riffgrund I via submarine cables to DolWin alpha.

ABB said its technologies assisted in converting the alternating current from the wind farms into direct current before being transmitted at a voltage of +/- 320 kV via 165 kilometers of extruded DC submarine and underground cables to the grid connection point at the Dörpen West substation in Heede, northern Germany.

With the DolWin1 project ABB has delivered 16 out of 22 VSC HVDC projects that are in commercial operation around the world.

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