RTE international acts as HVDC technical consultant to Sofia Offshore Wind Farm
RTE international acts as technical consultant to assure the design and execution of the HVDC project Sofia Offshore Wind Farm in the North Sea
RTE international is bringing its expertise in HVDC design and studies to RWE’s Sofia Offshore Wind Farm project and will assure the technical quality of the HVDC components for the entire work site
Situated on Dogger Bank, 195km off the North East coast of England, Sofia will have one hundred 14MW wind turbines with a total installed generation capacity of 1.4GW. Its commissioning is scheduled for 2025. The electricity generated will be transported to the British transmission network via a 227km-long HVDC cable. Two HVDC-VSC converter stations will be built, one at each end of the line. The offshore converter station, installed near the wind turbines, will convert 66kV AC voltage into ±320kV DC voltage. The onshore station will then convert it back into 400kV AC voltage, ready to be distributed on the British transmission network.
RTE international, acting as an independent technical consultant, will provide its expertise in the field of HVDC in order to examine the manufacturer’s system and check the compliance of its design with the specifications defined by the Sofia project team. RTE international’s experts will provide in-depth advice to Sofia on the wind farm’s HVDC transmission system. Thanks to experience acquired in the largest simulation and HVDC studies laboratory in Europe, RTE international will also oversee the interaction studies between the onshore converter and the other HVDC systems connected to the National Grid. Finally, the experts will be present during the acceptance tests for the equipment, the on-site testing and the commissioning.
“Sofia is one of the biggest offshore wind farm projects in the world and HVDC technology is a vital component. It makes it possible to envisage wind farms far from the coastline where the wind is stronger and steadier. Sofia chose our team because of its recognised expertise in HVDC design and studies, with RTE international now being a dynamic player in the development of offshore wind power.”
Sofia is the largest project in RWE Renewable’s current development portfolio with a generating capacity of up to 1.4 gigawatts (GW). The wind farm site is located 195 km off the coast of the North East of England and on the shallow central area of the North Sea known as Dogger Bank. Once operational, Sofia will be able to generate enough green energy to meet the electricity needs of almost 1.2 million average UK homes.