The new High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) submarine cable system interconnecting Norway and Denmark, Skagerrak 4, has been officially inaugurated and ready for commercial operation.
The realisation of Skagerrak 4 had been agreed upon by the Danish and the Norwegian transmission grid operators Energinet.dk and Statnett in November 2009, in order to increase the capacity of the power transmission system between Norway and Denmark.
The capacity of Skagerrak 4 is approximately 700 MW. It had been in a test phase since October 1, 2014 and became operational at the end of 2014. As for the existing Skagerrak 1-3, the grid connection points are Kristiansand and Tjele. Differently from Skagerrak 1–3, for Skagerrak 4 a cable solution is chosen for the complete route length.
Prysmian was awarded the contract for the land HVDC cable system for the Skagerrak 4 worth approximately €40 million by the Danish transmission grid operator Energinet.dk in January 2011.
Furthermore, the 137 kilometres (85 mi) subsea cable and the 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) Norwegian land cable was delivered by Nexans for approximately 638 million DKK ( €85.5 million).
ABB delivered two 700-megawatt Voltage Source Converter stations based on the company’s HVDC Light® technology. The new link operates in bipolar mode with the Skagerrak 3 link that uses classic Line Commutated Converter HVDC technology.
ABB has delivered all four of the Skagerrak system’s links, with Skagerrak 1 and 2 in the 1970s, Skagerrak 3 in 1993 and now this latest project. The system spans 240 kilometers and crosses the North Sea’s Skagerrak Strait, providing 1,700 megawatts of transmission capacity.
Image: Statnett