DNV GL supports creation of China’s first HVDC offshore wind substation

DNV GL, the world’s largest resource of independent energy experts and certification body, today announced that it has been contracted to provide technical advisory support on feasibility studies for the first-ever high-voltage direct current (HVDC) offshore wind substation in China.

China has committed heavily to developing its offshore wind power generating capacity. It currently plans to have 5 GW of offshore wind power installed by 2020 and in 2017 alone it installed almost 1.2 GW of offshore wind capacity. This brought the cumulative total installed capacity to nearly 2.8 GW, third globally behind the United Kingdom and Germany.

However, the country is now faced by the challenge that all the promising wind farm sites within 10 km of the shore have already been exploited. To boost capacity further and meet the 2020 target, China is having to explore locations that are further offshore. To this end, Huadong Engineering Corporation is planning a ground-breaking 1.1 GW offshore wind farm some 90 km off the coast of Jiangsu Province in eastern China.

Traditional submarine high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) cables become extremely inefficient when transporting large amounts of electricity over such long distances. In contrast, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) systems allow power to be transmitted over large distances under the sea with minimal losses. Hence a key stage in the new project will be the creation of an offshore HVDC transmission system to export offshore power from the wind farm to the mainland, including offshore HVDC converter station, submarine cables and onshore HVDC converter station. This will be the first offshore HVDC system in China. 

To support the realization of this pioneering project, Huadong has contracted DNV GL to supply technical trainings, advices and support on their feasibility study on aspects of conceptual design and risk assessment.

“Offshore HVDC transmission system is a new business for DNV GL China and the Asia Pacific region. So it is invaluable to be able to call on a partner such as DNV GL who brings global expertise in both HVDC technology and offshore engineering to the project. Their experience in these areas will be a critical factor in successfully delivering a major new wind farm so far from land to help China continue to lead the way in offshore wind generation,” said Haifeng Qi, President, Power China Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited Renewable Energy Corporation. 

“Compared to onshore HVDC technology, offshore wind HVDC technology has more unique specifications, as a combination of both offshore wind and HVDC technology need to be applied in limited space in order to satisfy safety and functional requirements. DNV GL is pleased to work with the customer on this HVDC milestone project to accelerate the development of the local offshore wind industry based on our extensive offshore wind experience.” Deng Pan, Head of Offshore Wind APAC, DNV GL – Energy. 

“We are excited to be supporting Huadong in this landmark development by providing a crucial service for the implementation of this project, by building on our experience and lessons learnt from applying offshore HVDC technologies in other regions,” said Lucy Craig,  Technology and Innovation Director, DNV GL – Energy.