The project, worth approximately upwards of $210 million, was awarded to Prysmian Group in May 2019 by Vineyard Wind, LLC. The contract included the design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of an HVAC (high voltage alternating current) cable system composed of two 220-kV three-core cables with extruded XLPE insulation that will deliver clean energy to the mainland power grid in the United States.

“We are proud to have completed such an important and strategic project that confirms the United States’ acceleration towards the energy transition. Following the successful completion of the Viking Link cable operation, Prysmian further confirms its capability to smoothly execute important projects included in its portfolio,” said Hakan Ozmen, EVP of projects BU, Prysmian Group.

The 134-km submarine power cables were manufactured at Prysmian Group’s centers in Pikkala, Finland, and Arco Felice, Italy, while marine installation operations were performed by Prysmian Group’s Cable Enterprise and Ulisse cable laying vessels.

“With Vineyard Wind 1, we have demonstrated to the market our ability to bring our expertise, state-of-the-art cable technology and installation capabilities to the U.S. market. Thanks to our investment in a new cable plant located at Brayton Point, Massachusetts, we are committed to reinforcing our footprint in the U.S., supporting the growing offshore wind market,” said Alberto Boffelli, head of project operations, projects BU, Prysmian Group.

News item from Prysmian Group

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MAOD is a joint venture of EDF Renewables – North America and Shell New Energies U.S. In addition, the board awarded onshore grid upgrade projects to accept offshore transmission from the LTCS to utilities Atlantic City Electric, BGE, LS Power, PECO, PPL, PSE&G and Transource.

The MAOD-JCP&L proposal is estimated to cost $504 million. The necessary onshore grid upgrade projects are estimated to cost $568 million, for a total of $1.07 billion for the full LTCS. It is estimated that the selected projects will save New Jersey ratepayers $900 million compared to the cost of transmission without using this coordinated approach through the State Agreement Approach (SAA). The SAA solicitation closed in September 2021, and proposals for 80 projects were received from 13 transmission developers.

The board’s decision Wednesday was informed by data and analysis from New Jersey’s grid operator, PJM Interconnection. This project represents the first-ever use of the State Agreement Approach between the NJBPU and PJM, using PJM’s competitive transmission planning process to help NJBPU solicit and evaluate 80 different transmission proposals. The board determined that the selected projects best meet the goals of the SAA solicitation and will result in a more efficient and cost-effective means of achieving 7,500 MW of OSW by 2035, the state’s offshore wind goal at the time of the solicitation.

“New Jersey has been at the leading edge of offshore wind development since Gov. Murphy took office, and today’s action is further evidence that we are committed to developing offshore wind and the necessary transmission to shore in the most cost-effective, reliable and responsible manner possible,” said Joseph L. Fiordaliso, president of the NJBPU. “I would like to thank Board staff for a very thorough job of evaluating the many applications we received for this first-in-the-nation coordinated offshore wind transmission solicitation process.”

The board also directed its staff to begin necessary preliminary steps to support a future SAA solicitation, to enable the transmission of New Jersey’s new and expanded goal of 11,000 MW of offshore wind energy by 2040, and to continue its engagement with other states, regional grid operators and other stakeholders regarding a regional approach to offshore wind transmission.

The approved applicants were part of a competitive solicitation process aimed at exploring coordinated offshore wind transmission solutions. The process identified the most cost-effective, environmentally sensitive and ready-to-build means of reliably bringing offshore wind energy to shore. A public process beginning in 2019 included several technical conferences and four stakeholder meetings, which informed the design of the solicitation and the evaluation of responses.

The selected bid requires the project developer to prebuild a single corridor from the shore crossing to the LTCS. This single corridor will be designed to be used by offshore wind projects needed to reach 7,500 MW. This will result in a single onshore transmission corridor which will reduce environmental impact, community disruption and permitting risks. The Board anticipates issuing the third solicitation in Q1 2023.

News item from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU)

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A planned offshore wind project in New York is gaining attention for its novel design that will, for the first time, leverage high-voltage direct current (HVDC) technology to support offshore wind in the United States.

Siemens Energy HVDC offshore wind converter station

In a consortium with Aker Solutions, Siemens Energy is supplying the HVDC transmission system for Sunrise Wind as the project seeks to deliver enough clean, renewable energy to power nearly 600,000 New York homes and other customers.

The product of a joint venture partnership between Danish clean energy giant Ørsted and New England energy provider Eversource, the 924-MW project will be located more than 30 miles east of Montauk Point, Long Island, and is expected to be up and running by 2025.

Once complete, the project will play a key role in supporting New York’s commitment to transition to 100% clean electricity by 2040. The HVDC system is based on voltage source converter (VSC) and insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) technologies. It is designed to quickly, and independently, manage reactive and active power to support the grid at the point of interconnection.

Siemens Energy is delivering the HVDC system on a turnkey basis as well as providing onshore civil work in partnership with local companies. This includes an offshore converter station that will collect 66 kilovolts (kV) alternating current (AC) power generated by the wind turbines through an inter-array cable system.

The AC power will be converted to 320 kV_DC for transmission through a nearly 100-mile export cable to a Holbrook, Long Island, onshore converter station where it will be converted back to AC power and injected into the grid.

Time-tested technology

In the U.S, the Trans Bay Cable (TBC) project was built in 2010 to provide critical backup for the San Francisco power grid. Like the Sunrise Wind project, the Siemens Energy HVDC transmission system project used VSC technology and included a 53-mile-long cable laid underneath the San Francisco Bay.

More recently, HVDC transmission was brought onboard oil and gas platforms. Typically, these oil and gas platforms generate their own electricity using gas turbines. However, as oil and gas companies commit to reducing CO₂ emissions, the platforms are increasingly being powered from shore, with the power transmitted to the platforms using HVDC-VSC transmission.

Benefits of HVDC-VSC for offshore wind

HVDC-VSC was chosen for the Sunrise Wind project because it is the most flexible, efficient and reliable choice for the project’s transmission system. In fact, HVDC-VSC is a proven transmission technology that makes remote offshore wind farms possible. Here is a snapshot of some HVDC-VSC benefits.

1. Longer transmission distances

One of the most often cited benefits of HVDC-VSC in offshore applications is that there are no technical limitations to the length of the cables that can be used for transporting the energy. This is in sharp contrast to AC cable transmission where a sizeable portion of the current capability is consumed by charging current which multiplies as the cable gets longer.

2. More flexible power

Even though fewer cables are required with HVDC-VSC offshore projects, more generated green power can be transmitted from the wind farm to the mainland. As the need for more energy increases and distance to wind farms increase, this benefit will become a significant HVDC-VSC offshore wind selling point.

This is also good news for areas with limited cable corridors as the use of HVDC-VSC enables more power to be carried in fewer cables.

3. Controllable and reliable

The modular multilevel converter (MMC), introduced for HVDC by Siemens Energy more than a decade ago, is the well-established standard for high-voltage, high-power VSC applications today. Each module within an MMC is a discrete voltage source with a local capacitor to define its voltage step without creating ripple voltage distortion across the converter’s other phases. As a result, it is possible to achieve the required sinusoidal AC and smooth DC side output voltage waveforms without excessive harmonic distortion and high frequency noise.

In addition, the MMC can absorb and generate reactive power independently from active power up to the converter rating. The output currents can be varied over the complete operating range in a smooth, linear way. This enables independent and very flexible control of active and reactive power, which supports the connected AC grid.

A bright offshore future

The move to building more renewable energy plants with increased capacities is well underway. Europe has benefited from offshore wind power for years. Now, with the installation of the first U.S. HVDC-VSC offshore wind farm, North America is better positioned to continue its quest to help satisfy the growing demand for renewable energy.

With more than 25 years of maritime industry experience, Kevin currently spearheads the growth and positioning of Siemens Energy for connecting U.S. offshore wind energy projects to the electrical grid. Prior to Siemens Energy, Kevin worked with several U.S. offshore wind developers, including Bluewater Wind, where he played a key role in several notable accomplishments including the first offshore wind Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in the United States. Kevin also has experience in private marine consulting firms, where he led the engineering, financing, and construction of ships and offshore structures. Kevin has a Bachelor of Science degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture and a Masters of Engineering in Ocean Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology, where he has also served as an instructor.

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