CobraCable, the high voltage direct current (HVDC) 700MW submarine power trunkline linking Denmark and the Netherlands, has finished final tests, moving ahead a key project in the EU ambition to build a ‘meshed’ offshore grid as part of integrated EU energy market.
Completion of the HVDC test by Italian cabling giant Prysmian, which secured this project in 2016 from TenneT TSO and Energinet SOV, operators of the Dutch and Danish power transmission grids, respectively, clears the way for the 320kV line toward to being supply Danish power to some 700,000 homes in the Netherlands.
The 325km-long line, which connect Eemshaven, in the Netherlands to Endrup in Denmark via the German North Sea, includes two onshore lengths of 1km on the Dutch side and 25km on the Danish side that will link two onshore converter stations, provided under separate contract by Siemens.
While several bi-lateral transmission projects off Europe are taking shape – subsea grid links between Norway and the UK, and between Norway and Germany are also being built – a 'meshed grid' linking all North Sea nations and their offshore wind farms among each other still remains a long-term vision.
