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Grid connection of offshore wind farms

The connection of offshore wind farms to the grid is an important research field because while the process is currently responsible for a large proportion of costs, the potential for cost reduction is great.

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 Many different grid connection concepts have been proposed, but their technical performance and impact on costs remain unproven.

The development of large offshore wind farms far from the mainland is challenging the limits of current cable, HVAC transmission and HVDC converter technologies. This situation demands reliable, low-maintenance systems that are less reliant on costly offshore converter platforms.

Our expertise and services

SINTEF has worked with the connection of wind farms to grids since the 1990s, and has been involved in a large number of relevant research and development projects, both in Norway and overseas. Our expertise covers most aspects of this field, including the use of detailed modelling of high frequency phenomena in order to assess harmonics and resonances, transient stability analyses, the reliable operation and control of HVDC systems, and offshore grid design taking inter-area power exchange into account.

Modelling and numerical analyses are complemented by laboratory experiments carried out in our excellent laboratory facilities.

Projects / research fields

  • Offshore grid layout optimisation
  • DC grids
  • HVDC systems
  • Subsea HVAC transmission
  • Electrical design for wind farms
  • Grid codes
  • Resonances in collection grids
  • Power system integration
  • Integration with offshore loads

Status

  • On-going activities in NOWITECH, BestPaths, ProOfGrids, Relipe, IRPwind 
  • On-going bilateral projects with clients
  • Related activities as part of recently completed EU FP7 projects (HiPRwind, DeepWind, EERA-DTOC and Twenties), and the Norwegian-funded projects OPE and EM Transients

This is a part of our expertise on Offshore wind  

Projects

ProOfGrids

ProOfGrids

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Protection and Fault Handling in Offshore HVDC Grids

NOWITECH - Research Network

NOWITECH - Research Network

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Since 2009 NOWITECH has developed 40 innovations in Offshore wind. NOWITECH was concluded as an FME by the end og 2017. NOWITECH is now continued as a research network.