German grid operator 50Hertz has held a ground-breaking ceremony for construction of the first converter for its SuedOstLink project.
The link will reliably transport large quantities of electricity from the onshore wind farms in the federal states of Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as well as the wind farms in the North Sea and Baltic Sea to the south of Germany.
The ceremony, at the Wolmirstedt substation near Magdeburg, was held in the presence of Robert Habeck, Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, Reiner Haseloff, Prime Minister of the State of Saxony-Anhalt, and numerous other guests of honour.
This is one of the most important grid expansion projects for energy transition in Germany.
In the converter, alternating current from the surrounding extra-high voltage grid will be converted into direct current in the future.
The SuedOstLink converter is the starting point for the approximately 540km-long direct current connection between Wolmirstedt in Saxony-Anhalt and Landshut in Bavaria.
The SuedOstLink is a joint project of the two electricity transmission system operators TenneT and 50Hertz.
While 50Hertz is responsible for the northern part of the connection through Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia, TenneT is responsible for the southern Bavarian construction phase. TenneT will also build a converter at the Isar substation that converts direct current back into alternating current.
Habeck said: “The converter in Wolmirstedt marks the start of construction of the SuedOstLink.
“This is a milestone in the expansion of the electricity grid in Germany. In order to achieve climate neutrality in the electricity sector, we will need thousands of kilometres of additional power grids within the next two decades.
“They have to be built – and planned and approved in advance. The converter was approved in just seven months and is expected to be completed as early as 2025.
“The plant would thus be a model for accelerated planning and approval procedures for power grid expansion.”