Europe: EU project PROMOTioN launches new website

“We want to strengthen the public visibility of the project and highlight the advantages of meshed HVDC offshore grids in Europe”, said Paul Raats, from project coordinator DNV GL. “A simple and well-structured website allows good access to the core themes, tasks and events of the project”, said Andreas Wagner, Managing director of German Offshore Wind Energy Foundation. The Foundation is responsible for the public relation activities of the PROMOTioN project and has developed the website and the corporate identity.

Along with the website comes a project newsletter which informs biannually about current news from the project. The newsletter provides also information about the international offshore wind industry and gives an overview about upcoming events. A series of stakeholder workshops and events will be organised during the project phase to discuss the various technological and regulatory approaches. The first public event will be held in Brussels on 29 June and will bring together industry experts, academia and policy makers to discuss opportunities and benefits of a meshed offshore grid for Europe.

During project execution from January 2016 until December 2019, PROMOTioN aims to investigate the benefits of meshed offshore transmission grids to the European electricity market. The goal is to develop and demonstrate three key technologies: diode rectifier offshore converters, multi-vendor HVDC (high-voltage direct current) grid protection system, and the full power testing of HVDC circuit breakers.
Furthermore, proposals for a regulatory and financial framework will be developed that support coordinated planning, construction and operation of integrated offshore infrastructures, including an offshore grid deployment plan (roadmap) for the future offshore grid system in Europe.  Currently, the high cost of converter technology, a lack of experience with protection systems and fault clearance components hamper the deployment of meshed HVDC offshore grids. In addition the deployment is hindered by limitations inherent to existing European regulations for the purpose of developing cross border offshore infrastructures, national legal and regulatory barriers and financing issues.

PROMOTioN is presently the biggest energy project in the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research Program. The project consortium which is coordinated by DNV GL includes 34 partners from 11 countries - all major HVDC manufacturers, TSO’s linked to the North Sea, several wind turbine suppliers, offshore wind developers, leading academics, industry organisations and consulting companies.