RTE international entrusted by Energinet for Bornholm Energy Island

RTE international is capitalising on its experience in de-risking multi-vendor HVDC projects and enabling the grid integration of offshore wind in order to assist Energinet with the Bornholm Energy Island project, which has the potential to be one of the first Multi-terminal Multi-vendor HVDC systems in Europe.

Once again, RTEi is at the forefront of pioneering and innovative HVDC projects focusing on the European energy transition. In terms of a renewable energy and hybrid interconnector project, Bornholm Energy Island (BEI) is the first of its kind.  Planned by the Danish TSO, Energinet, and the German TSO, 50Hertz, and it will be set up in the Baltic Sea by 2030. As a first step, BEI will consist of offshore wind farms (with a total of 3 GW offshore wind capacity) located in Rønne Banke, connected to the AC substation at Bornholm Island. Additionally, HVDC interconnectors running from Bornholm will connect to Zealand (Denmark) and Germany, and potentially to more countries in the future.

The BEI project has the potential to become the first multi-vendor multi-terminal DC link to be operational in Europe. The project includes options for parallel operation on the AC, or multiterminal connection on the DC side.

RTEi has been contracted as a third-party consultant to perform gap analysis of Energinet’s existing project specifications and to adapt them accordingly for the Bornholm Island Energy project. The key deliverables of this project are intended for use by Energinet directly in the tendering process for developing the BEI project.

Services Delivered:

• Review and update of offline simulation model requirements for HVDC and offshore wind farms.
• Formulation of a multi-party offline model and data-exchange framework that takes into account the numerous stakeholders in the BEI project (OWF owners, HVDC/ wind turbine manufacturers)
• Provision of support for the choice and specification of Control & Protection (C&P) replicas and real-time simulator for HVDC tendering phase and beyond (for detailed studies).
• Drafting of specifications for real-time simulation requirements for OWFs connecting to the energy island.
• Development and drafting of specifications for the multi-party C&P interaction study process for the design and commissioning of HVDC systems and wind farms.
• Additional optional services, including a specification update post HVDC contract award(s), a review of HVDC Front End Engineering Design (FEED) studies, and potentially an update of the technical specifications drafted during this project, that are to be used for future projects.

“The challenges of this complex and innovative project lie in the need for detailed and thorough specifications in multiple aspects of system development, which will play a key role in maximizing the interoperability of an integrated system of multi-vendor, multi-terminal, and multi-stakeholder HVDC-connected OWPPs.

In order to establish these specifications and criteria, one should be adequately informed of the state-of-the-art technological development in HVDC power system engineering, electromagnetic transients (EMT) modelling and simulation, as well as supporting multi-vendor interoperability studies.

We are happy to be able to share our expertise and best practices and accompany Energinet through these first steps to kick off this ambitious project.”, said Pierre Rault, HVDC Power Systems Expert.