Baltic Cable

Baltic Cable
Baltic Cable
	Pylons of the Baltic Cable HVDC in Sweden
	Location of Baltic Cable
Location
Country	Sweden, Germany
Coordinates	53°53′45.8″N10°48′08.7″E / 53.896056°N 10.802417°E ; 55°25′27″N13°03′43.3″E / 55.42417°N 13.062028°E ; 55°25′50.1″N13°3′12″E / 55.430583°N 13.05333°E ; 55°27′8.1″N13°2′56.2″E / 55.452250°N 13.048944°E ; 55°28′33.3″N13°04′02.2″E / 55.475917°N 13.067278°E ; 55°28′38.5″N13°04′49.1″E / 55.477361°N 13.080306°E ; 55°28′59.4″N13°06′15.2″E / 55.483167°N 13.104222°E ; 55°29′9.6″N13°07′12.6″E / 55.486000°N 13.120167°E ; 55°29′29.7″N13°8′18.3″E / 55.491583°N 13.138417°E ; 55°29′52″N13°08′33.6″E / 55.49778°N 13.142667°E ; 55°30′01.1″N13°08′45″E / 55.500306°N 13.14583°E
From	Lübeck-Herrenwyk
To	Arrie
Ownership information
Owner	Statkraft Energi AS
Operator	Baltic Cable AB
Construction information
Manufacturer of conductor/cable	ABB
Manufacturer of substations	ABB
Commissioned	1994
Technical information
Type	submarine cable / overhead line
Type of current	HVDC
Total length	262 km (163 mi)
No. of transmission towers	40
Power rating	600 MW
AC voltage	380 kV
DC voltage	450 kV
No. of poles	1
No. of circuits	1

Last updated December 17, 2024

The Baltic Cable is a monopolar HVDC ^[1] power line running beneath the Baltic Sea that interconnects the electric power grids of Germany and Sweden. Its maximum transmission power is 600 megawatts (MW).

The Baltic Cable uses a transmission voltage of 450 kV – the highest operating voltage for energy transmission in Germany. The total project cost was 2 billion SEK (US$280 million), and the link was put into operation in December 1994. With a length of 250 kilometres (160 mi), it was the second longest high voltage undersea cable on earth, until Basslink came into service in 2006.

Route

The Baltic Cable is the only interconnector between the price zones Germany/Luxemburg (DE/LU) and Sweden 4 (SE4) and starts in Germany at the converter station at Lübeck-Herrenwyk, which is on the site of a former coal-fired power station, It crosses the river Trave in a channel 6 metres (20 ft) below the bottom of the river and then follows its course as sea cable laid at the eastern side of the river. After crossing the Priwall Peninsula the cable runs parallel to the coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, before turning north-easterly toward Sweden. At sea, it crosses the submarine cable of HVDC Kontek. This is the only crossing of two submarine HVDC cables in the Baltic Sea and one of the only few worldwide.^{[ citation needed ]}

From the landing point at the southern coast of Sweden, the powerline transitions to an overhead line a few kilometres inland. It runs to a termination tower in Kruseberg which is attached to a 400 kV/130 kV substation of the Swedish power grid.

Kruseberg converter station on the Swedish side of the Baltic Cable HVDC interconnection Balkab1.jpg — Kruseberg converter station on the Swedish side of the Baltic Cable HVDC interconnection

The anode, which is situated in the Baltic Sea, consists of 40 titanium nets each with a surface of 20 m², which are laid on the sea bottom under plastic tubes and stones. It is connected to Kruseberg converter station with a 23-kilometre-long underground and submarine power line, which consists of two parallel-connected cables with 630 mm² cross section.

The cathode is situated in the Baltic Sea north of Elmenhorst. It consists of a bare copper ring with a 2-kilometre diameter. It is connected to the static inverter plant in Lübeck-Herrenwyk with a 32-kilometre-long cable. The first 20 kilometres of this cable have a cross section of 1400 mm² and the last of 800 mm². This cable is laid in the tunnel under Trave River at a distance of 2.5 metres from the high voltage cable. The separation reduces the magnetic field, which may affect compasses of vessels in this highly frequented area. As the cable is a monopolar line, it produces much higher magnetic fields than bipolar cables with the same ratings.^{[ citation needed ]}

Operation

Because this overhead line can generate radio interference, there is a highly effective active filter system installed at the Kruseberg converter station. In the Lübeck-Herrenwyk converter station, there is no requirement for such a system, because there is no overhead powerline section on the German side.

The cable cannot be operated at the maximum transmission rating of 600 megawatts, because the 380 kV line which begins at the converter station of Lübeck-Herrenwyk ends at the Lübeck-Siems substation. This is the only 380 kV powerline in Germany which has no direct connection to the Central European 380 kV grid, which caused the Baltic Cable to have a 372 megawatt (MW) capacity instead of 600 MW. This bottleneck was solved in 2004 when an additional 220 kV line was built.^[2] However power flows on 220 kV and 110 kV lines face increased losses of the transmission.

In the area of the converter station there is also a 110 kV/220 kV sub-station, fed by two 110 kV circuits from the Lübeck-Siems sub-station. There is no transformer for coupling the 380 kV- and the 110 kV-grid in the area of the Lübeck-Herrenwyk converter station.^{[ citation needed ]}

In 2016, the owner Statkraft started a court case against Swedish authorities in disagreements over profits from electricity trade in the cable.^[3]^[4]

In the night from April 16, 2017 to April 17, 2017 on the electrode cable on Priwall peninsula a fault occurred, which resulted in the generation of hydrogen at the fault location as it acted as cathode. The hydrogen got ignited by the generated heat and a 3 metres high flame shot off the ground. As there is no device monitoring the state of the electrode cable, no alert was made to the operators. Fire brigades were first not able to extinguish the fire, but the flame went out when the current was switched off.^[5]

Expansion schemes

Of the two originally planned 380 kV lines to Lübeck (from Krümmel Nuclear Power Plant to Lübeck-Siems and from Schwerin substation to Lübeck-Herrenwyk), the 380 kV line between Krümmel and Lübeck-Siems was canceled according to speakers from E.ON AG.^{[ citation needed ]}

There is still the option to build a 380 kV line from Lübeck to another 380 kV substation in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg or Lower Saxony. The construction of the 380 kV link between Lübeck-Herrenwyk and Schwerin is not progressing due to opposition from ecologists.^{[ citation needed ]}

A transmission rating of 600 MW should be possible via a new 220 kV cable and a static var compensator in Lübeck-Siems after 2005.

Related Research Articles

A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating current (AC) transmission systems. Most HVDC links use voltages between 100 kV and 800 kV.

The Kontek HVDC is a 170-kilometre (110 mi) long, monopolar 400 kV high-voltage direct current cable between Germany and the Danish island Zealand. Its name comes from "continent" and the name of the former Danish power transmission company "Elkraft", which operated the power grid on the Danish islands Lolland, Falster and Zealand and had the abbreviation "ek". As of today, the cable is operated by Energinet.dk in Denmark and 50Hertz Transmission GmbH in Germany.

The HVDC Gotland, on the Swedish east coast, was the first fully commercial static plant for high-voltage direct current transmission (HVDC) in the world.

The HVDC Volgograd–Donbass is a 475 kilometres (295 mi) long bipolar ±400 kV high voltage direct current powerline used for transmitting electric power from Volga Hydroelectric Station at Volgograd in Russia to Donbas in eastern Ukraine and vice versa.

The HVDC Inter-Island link is a 610 km (380 mi) long, 1200 MW high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system connecting the electricity networks of the North Island and South Island of New Zealand together. It is commonly referred to as the Cook Strait cable in the media and in press releases, although the link is much longer than its Cook Strait section. The link is owned and operated by state-owned transmission company Transpower New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HVDC Vancouver Island</span> De-energized high-voltage direct current interconnection

HVDC Vancouver Island is a de-energized high-voltage direct current interconnection owned by BC Hydro that runs between Arnott Substation (ARN) in Delta, British Columbia at 49°5′31″N123°2′31″W on the Canadian mainland, and the Vancouver Island Terminal (VIT) in Duncan, British Columbia on Vancouver Island at 48°49′39″N123°42′55″W. It went into operation in 1968 and was extended in 1977. HVDC Vancouver Island consists of three overhead line sections with a total length of 42 kilometres and two submarine cable sections with a length of 33 kilometres. Pole 1 ceased operation in 2014, and Pole 2 ceased operation in 2016. The infrastructure remains in place and portions may be re-used in the future.

The Pacific DC Intertie is an electric power transmission line that transmits electricity from the Pacific Northwest to the Los Angeles area using high voltage direct current (HVDC). The line capacity is 3.1 gigawatts, which is enough to serve two to three million Los Angeles households and represents almost half of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) electrical system's peak capacity.

HVDC Kingsnorth was a high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission system connecting Kingsnorth in Kent to two sites in London. It was at one time the only application of the technology of high voltage direct current transmission for the supply of transformer stations in a city, and the first HVDC link to be embedded within an AC system, rather than interconnecting two asynchronous systems. It was also the first HVDC scheme to be equipped with self-tuning harmonic filters and to be controlled with a "Phase Locked Oscillator", a principle which subsequently became standard on all HVDC systems.

The Pylons of Messina are two free-standing steel towers, the Sicilian one in Torre Faro and the Calabrian one in Villa San Giovanni. They were used from 1955 to 1994 to carry a 220 kilovolt power line across the Strait of Messina, between the Scilla substation in Calabria on the Italian mainland at 38°14′42″N15°40′59″E and the Messina-Santo substation in Sicily at 38°15′57″N15°39′04″E.

Square Butte is the designation of a high-voltage direct current transmission line in the United States between the Milton R. Young Power Plant near Center, North Dakota at 47°4′18″N101°11′45″W and the Arrowhead converter station near Adolph at 46°46′25″N92°17′39″W. It was built by Minnkota Power Cooperative and Minnesota Power and went in service in 1977. In 2009, an agreement was executed between the two companies whereby Minnkota gets the rights to all the power currently transmitted over the line while Minnesota Power takes full ownership of the line to transmit power from new sources in the Center area.

Shin-Shinano Frequency Converter is the designation of a back-to-back high-voltage direct current (HVDC) facility in Japan which forms one of four frequency converter stations that link Japan's western and eastern power grids. The other three stations are at Higashi-Shimizu, Minami-Fukumitsu, and Sakuma Dam.

HVDC Leyte–Luzon is a high-voltage direct current transmission link in the Philippines between geothermal power plants on the islands of Leyte and Luzon.

The Moyle Interconnector is a 500 megawatt (MW) HVDC link between Scotland and Northern Ireland, running between Auchencrosh in Ayrshire and Ballycronan More in County Antrim. It went into service in 2001 and is owned and operated by Mutual Energy.

The HVDC Haenam–Cheju is a 101 kilometer long HVDC submarine cable connection between the Korean Peninsula and the island of Jeju in South Korea, which went into service in 1996. The connection is bipolar, consisting of two 180kV cables with a maximum transmission power of 300 megawatts.

Estlink is a set of HVDC submarine power cables between Estonia and Finland. Estlink 1 is the first interconnection between the Baltic and Nordic electricity markets followed by Estlink 2 in 2014. The main purpose of the Estlink connection is to secure power supply in both regions to integrate the Baltic and Nordic energy markets.

LitPol Link is an electricity link between Poland and Lithuania which connects the Baltic transmission system to the synchronous grid of Continental Europe. It has a capacity of 500 MW and since 2021 it can operate in a synchronous regime.

GKK Etzenricht, an abbreviation of Gleichstromkurzkupplung Etzenricht, meaning Etzenricht HVDC-back-to-back station, was an HVDC back-to-back facility near Etzenricht in the district of Neustadt an der Waldnaab in Bavaria, Germany. It was built on the site of the Etzenricht substation, a 380 kV/220 kV/110 kV-substation, which went into service in 1970 and expanded afterwards several times. The facility was used between 1993 and 1995 for the exchange of power between Germany and the Czech Republic, operated by Bayernwerk AG.

HVDC BorWin1 is the first HVDC facility in the world to be built for importing power from an offshore wind park to shore, and the first to use voltage source converters (VSC) in Germany. It connects the offshore wind park BARD Offshore 1 and other offshore wind farms in Germany near Borkum to the European power grid. The facility was built by ABB and has a capacity of 400 MW at a bipolar voltage of ±150 kV. HVDC BorWin1, which leads from BorWin Alpha Offshore Platform to Diele substation, consists of a 75 kilometres (47 mi) of underground and 125 kilometres (78 mi) of submarine cable.

The HVDC Hokkaidō–Honshū or Hokkaidō–Honshū HVDC Link, Kitahon HVDC Link for short, is a 193-kilometre-long (120 mi) high voltage direct current transmission line for the interconnection of the power grids of Hokkaidō and Honshū, Japan. The project went into service in 1979 by the Electric Power Development Company (J-POWER). A 149-kilometre-long (93 mi) overhead line and a 44-kilometre-long (27 mi) submarine cable connect the terminals. The HVDC Hokkaidō–Honshū is a monopolar HVDC line with an operating voltage of 250 kV and rated power of 300 megawatts. This HVDC system uses thyristor converters.

References

↑ "Baltic Cable - An HVDC cable links Sweden with Germany". ABB. n.d. Retrieved February 3, 2018. No. of poles: 1
↑ "SVC Systems for E.ON in Lübeck-Siems" . Retrieved 3 January 2017.
↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-08-21. Retrieved 2016-08-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
↑ "Sverige nekter Statkraft å tjene penger på kabel". Teknisk Ukeblad . 19 August 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
↑ "Stichflamme aus der Tiefe: Baltic Cable explodiert auf dem Priwall". 17 April 2016.

"Produktblad Cable" (PDF). Baltic Cable AB. n.d. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-02-03. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
"Produktblad Converter" (PDF). Baltic Cable AB. n.d. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-02-03. Retrieved February 3, 2018.

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[ABB-polecount-1] "Baltic Cable - An HVDC cable links Sweden with Germany". ABB. n.d. Retrieved February 3, 2018. No. of poles: 1

[2] "SVC Systems for E.ON in Lübeck-Siems" . Retrieved 3 January 2017.

[3] "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-08-21. Retrieved 2016-08-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[4] "Sverige nekter Statkraft å tjene penger på kabel". Teknisk Ukeblad . 19 August 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2016.

[5] "Stichflamme aus der Tiefe: Baltic Cable explodiert auf dem Priwall". 17 April 2016.

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