wiredInUSA April 2019

Clean power deal

Going underground

Image: edie.net

The German energy transition plan, known as Energiewende, has set a target for 80 percent of the country’s annual electricity needs to be met by renewable energy by 2050. This requires Germany’s transmission service operators, such as Amprion, to upgrade their HV power transmission networks. Nexans will supply the cables to allow Amprion to take its overhead lines underground at sensitive sections of the route. Amprion operates a transmission grid of about 11,000km across an area from Lower Saxony down to the Alps, with the majority comprising overhead lines. Nexans was involved in Amprion’s pilot partial undergrounding project at Raesfield, and is now supplying 31.8km of 400kV cable for a major project at Legden on the route between Wesel and Meppen. The 5.2km Legden route comprises 2.1km of tunnel and 3.1km of pipes. Nexans is supplying the cable for one double circuit with a 2,500mm 2 copper cross-section. The tunnel section of cable will feature an HFFR sheath. Cable delivery is scheduled for July 2022, with installation completed in 2023.

Northumbrian Water has signed a ten-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Ørsted, the first deal of its type in the UK to secure procurement from an offshore wind farm. The Race Bank wind farm was commissioned in 2018, and is capable of generating 573MW. The water firm signed the PPA as an expansion of an existing renewable electricity supply agreement between the companies. The corporate PPA will deliver approximately 100GWh per year from Race Bank, amounting to 1TWh across the agreed term. The deal commenced in March 2019. Northumbrian Water has plans to install battery storage systems made from end-of- life electric vehicle (EV) batteries at several of its water treatment works. As part of the agreement, Ørsted will use balancing services to ensure wind-sourced electricity can be delivered to the water firm under an existing supply agreement. Ørsted’s head of corporate PPAs, Alana Kühne, commented: “Northumbrian Water shares our ambitions towards a greener future.”

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wiredInUSA - April 2019