50 Hertz has selected GE Vernova and Drydocks World to deliver the 2GW Ostwind 4 grid connection in the German Baltic Sea.
GE Vernova and Drydocks World are to build the direct current (DC) converter system following an international tender, which will comprise a converter at sea and a converter on land for the Ostwind 4 grid connection project.
The so-called engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract includes all engineering services, the procurement of the necessary components as well as the design, transport and installation of the systems at sea and on land.
The high-tech components for the converter are manufactured exclusively at the European production sites of GE Vernova.
GE Vernova will also build the onshore converter, which will be housed in a hall.
The main building of the offshore platform, the so-called topside, will be built at the Drydocks World shipyard in Dubai.
Drydocks World is also responsible for the steel substructure (jacket foundation) on which the offshore converter will be anchored to the seabed.
The converters will be configured according to the 2GW/525 kV standard agreed upon by the German transmission system operators (TSOs) TenneT, Amprion and 50Hertz.
This is the first converter order for the state-owned Port and Shipyard Company of the United Arab Emirates to meet this standard.
The contracting parties have agreed not to disclose the order volume and details of the contract.
The Ostwind 4 offshore grid connection will connect an offshore wind farm north-east of the Baltic Sea island of Rugen.
Total Energies is developing a corresponding wind farm area.
It is located on the edge of the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
From the offshore converter, an approximately 110-kilometre-long submarine cable is to be routed through the Bay of Greifswald and brought ashore near Lubmin near Vierow.
An approximately four-kilometre-long land cable runs from there to the planned substation with the counter-converter in the municipality of Brunzow in the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald.
There, the direct current is converted back into alternating current and fed into the extra-high-voltage transmission grid of 50Hertz.
Production and installation of the submarine and land cables have already been awarded to the Danish company NKT in 2023.
Stefan Kapferer, Chairman of the Management Board of 50Hertz: “The award to GE Vernova and Drydocks World marks the beginning of a new chapter in the use of wind energy in the Baltic Sea.
“50Hertz is the first transmission system operator to use the 2 GW/525 kV technology in this sea area as well.
“We are doing pioneering work in this way.
“We want to work towards exploiting all technically and economically sensible potentials for offshore wind energy in the Baltic Sea, especially with the help of direct current technology.
“In doing so, we need to think and act even more strongly across national borders.
“A prerequisite for this is that the legal and regulatory conditions are created to be able to connect wind farms in the waters of other EU countries to the German transmission grid.”