ABB to provide cable solution for offshore wind connection in Germany

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won a significant order from the Dutch-German transmission grid operator TenneT to design, engineer, supply and install an Alternating Current (AC) power transmission cable system that will connect Butendiek, an offshore wind farm in the German North Sea, to the HVDC (high voltage direct current) converter platform SylWin alpha.

The cable will link the AC platform of the Butendiek offshore wind farm to the HVDC converter platform SylWin alpha. The Butendiek wind farm is situated around 30 kilometers (km) off the island of Sylt. The cable system to be supplied is a 3-core 155 kilovolt (kV) AC submarine cable, approx. 38 km long. It is scheduled to be installed and commissioned in 2015. The high voltage cable originally destined for this project was lost in an incident in the Mediterranean Sea in July and ABB was requested to step in and help to support the project schedule.

The cable system will have a capacity to transmit 144 megawatts (MW) of wind power – enough to meet the electricity needs of approximately 150.000 German households. The use of clean, renewable wind energy as an alternate source is equivalent to the abatement of almost 750,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year that could have resulted from fossil fueled generation.

“Germany is among the world’s leading proponents of renewable energy and continues to push for lowering environmental impact”, said Claudio Facchin, Head of ABB’s Power Systems business. “We have a vast array of technologies and considerable experience in this domain and are pleased to support TenneT with this fast track project.

ABB has successfully commissioned more than 10 AC cable projects around the world for offshore wind projects and others are under execution. Butendiek is the sixth offshore wind connection project in Germany awarded to ABB by TenneT. ABB is presently executing the Sandbank AC cable link, which also connects an offshore wind farm to the SylWin alpha HVDC converter platform.

As one of the world’s leading high-voltage cable manufacturers ABB has extensive domain knowledge and experience across a range of applications including offshore wind farm connections, powering oil and gas platforms from shore, and underground or subsea interconnectors.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility, industry, and transport and infrastructure customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in roughly 100 countries and employs about 145,000 people.