ABB has won orders worth over $150 million from Danish energy company, Ørsted (previously Dong Energy), to supply technologies for the grid connection of Hornsea Project Two, slated to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm.
Hornsea Two is a 1,400 megawatt (MW) project under construction in the North Sea about 100 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast. Upon completion, it will be able to deliver enough clean electrical power to meet the needs of more than 1.3 million homes annually.
The additional power supply will support economic growth in the UK’s Humber region, and help the UK meet its target of generating 15 percent of energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.
ABB will supply its state-of-the-art Static Var Compensation (SVC) Light technology with advanced ABB Ability™ MACH control systems, High Voltage gas-insulated switchgear (GIS), transformers, reactors and harmonic filters.
ABB will also be responsible for the engineering, supply, project management and commissioning of the digital control and protection systems for the onshore substation and the two offshore platform substations.
The electrical power flow from Hornsea Two wind farm will be protected and controlled by the largest Static Compensation (STATCOM) system ever built for an offshore wind application.
STATCOMs help offshore wind generating turbines to increase power transfer capability, improve power quality and enhance grid stability, delivering an energy efficient and reliable power supply.
The brain of the STATCOM is the ABB Ability MACH control, protection and monitoring system, managing this sophisticated technology by overseeing thousands of operations in real time to ensure power reliability and efficiency.
As part of the project scope, the ABB Ability™ enabled MicroSCADA system will be used for monitoring of the electricity network and gather data from Relion Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) and Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) to ensure grid integration system operations.
Advanced technology will also be used for communication between the offshore platforms and the onshore substation.
