en.Wedoany.com Reported - Siemens Energy, together with its joint venture Neptun Smulders Offshore Renewables (NSORe), has been awarded a contract by German transmission system operator 50Hertz to provide a grid connection system for the North Sea Connector 2 offshore wind grid connection project in the European North Sea. Once operational, the system will enable the transmission of up to 2 GW of offshore wind power to the onshore grid.
Siemens Energy will supply the transmission technology and related equipment for the offshore converter platform. Approximately 95% of the equipment will be manufactured at Siemens Energy's factories in Germany. Among these, transformers and converters will be produced at the Nuremberg plant, while zero-carbon, environmentally friendly clean air insulated switchgear (Blue GIS) will be supplied from the Berlin plant. Siemens Energy has also secured a long-term service contract for the project, covering operations and maintenance, IT services, and hotline support.
Tim Holt, Member of the Global Executive Committee of Siemens Energy AG, stated that expanding offshore wind grid connection is one of the most challenging tasks in the current energy transition, especially against the backdrop of an urgent need to accelerate the process. To this end, Siemens Energy has expanded its production capacity in Germany. Technology alone is only part of the solution for achieving energy transition goals; ensuring large-scale implementation of technology also requires strong maritime partners.
To efficiently transmit offshore wind power from distant locations, the offshore alternating current must first be converted to direct current, a process carried out on the offshore converter platform. The offshore converter platform primarily consists of a jacket foundation and a topside module, with the topside roughly equivalent to the height of a building. The North Sea Connector 2 converter platform will be built by NSORe, a joint venture between Neptun Werft, part of Germany's Meyer Werft Group, and Belgian construction company Smulders.
The topside module of the converter platform will be constructed by Meyer Werft at its shipyard in Rostock-Warnemünde, Germany, and subsequently equipped with transmission technology and equipment by Siemens Energy. Smulders will manufacture the jacket foundation in the Netherlands. The topside will then be installed onto the jacket foundation approximately 200 kilometers west of the island of Sylt in the North Sea. Once operational, the platform will convert the alternating current generated by wind turbines into direct current, which will be transmitted via submarine cables to an onshore converter station, where it will be converted back to alternating current for grid integration.
