50Hertz has completed the last of three cable systems in the Ostwind 2 offshore grid connection project in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Rügen after a four-week trial operation.
This means it will go into continuous operation almost three months earlier than planned.
The 257MW Arcadis Ost 1 (Parkwind) and 476MW Baltic Eagle (Iberdrola) wind farms are connected to the three Ostwind 2 cable systems.
The former will be fully online at the end of 2023 and the first turbines of the Baltic Eagle wind farm have also been feeding in electricity for several months, although the assembly work at sea to complete the site is currently still ongoing.
From 2025 onwards, once both arrays have been fully commissioned, an offshore output of up to 750MW will be integrated into the 50Hertz high-voltage network.
“50Hertz (has delivered) on time and budget,” said the company’s chief finance and investment officer Marco Nix.
He added: “After a planning, approval and implementation period of around seven years, we have now made a perfect landing.
“We are approaching our other projects in the Baltic and North Seas with the same goal.
“Our thanks for the good cooperation go to the responsible authorities at state and federal level, our cable manufacturer consortium consisting of NKT and Boskalis as well as our partners from Iberdrola and Parkwind, with whom we have jointly built and operate the offshore platforms for the wind farms.”
Ostwind 2 consists of three cable systems with 220kV AC voltage that lead to land from the two offshore platforms.
The route of the Ostwind 1 grid connection was mainly used, via which the two wind farms Wikinger and Arkona (in operation since 2019) are connected.
Around 95km of submarine cables were laid at the bottom of the Greifswald Bodden using special ships. The rural route is only a few kilometers long and leads from the coast to the Lubmin substation.
The new offshore projects Ostwind 3 (Windanker/Iberdrola offshore wind farm), Ostwind 4 (including the planned offshore wind farm by Total Energies) and Bornholm Energy Island will also use this route. However, two new substations are required on land.
Construction of the Stilow substation for the Ostwind 3 project has already begun.
For Ostwind 4 and Bornholm Energy Island, converter systems to convert direct current into alternating current are required in the Kemnitz/Brünzow search area.