Cross-Skagerrak

Cross-Skagerrak is the name of a 1,700 MW high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission facility between Tjele (Denmark) and Kristiansand (Norway). It is owned and operated by Statnett in Norway, and Energinet.dk in Denmark.^[1]

Technical features

The 240-kilometre (150 mi) Cross-Skagerrak 1–3 scheme consists of a 113-kilometre (70 mi) overhead line and a 127-kilometre (79 mi) underwater cable.^[1] It has a capacity of 1,050 MegaWatts (MW). Both land parts in Denmark and in Norway uses overhead lines from the cable landing point to the converter stations.^[2] The towers were originally constructed for four poles, but were rebuilt for three conductors (three poles) when Skagerrak 3 was established. Near Aggersund HVDC Cross-Skagerrak crossed Aggersund strait overhead on 70-metre-tall (230 ft) towers with a 470-metre-long (1,540 ft) span, but were later converted to underground cables. The pylons of this span were the tallest electricity pylons of an HVDC line in Europe.

For such a long submarine cable, an AC transmission scheme would not be feasible since too much of the cable's capacity would be consumed by the capacitance of the cable itself, and the power systems in Norway and Jutland are not synchronous.

Skagerrak 1 and 2

Cross-Skagerrak went in service in 1977 as a bipolar HVDC scheme. This facility was built with thyristor valves. When installed this underwater cable was the world's longest and deepest underwater HVDC power cable. The cable, manufactured by Alcatel, is laid in a maximum water depth of 530 metres (1,740 ft).^[3]

Both cables have a capacity of 250 MW at 250 kV.^[1]

Skagerrak 3

In 1993 the scheme was extended by HVDC Cross-Skagerrak 3. Cross-Skagerrak 3 is a monopolar line for a voltage of 350 kV with a capacity of 440 MW at 350 kV.^[1] In installing Cross-Skagerrak 3, the old poles Cross-Skagerrak 1 and Cross-Skagerrak 2 were converted to monopolar HVDC schemes, which run with opposite polarity to Cross-Skagerrak 3.^[2]

Skagerrak 4

In November 2009, Statnett and Energinet.dk signed the agreement to construct Skagerrak 4.^[4][5] The capacity of Skagerrak 4 is approximately 700 MW. It had been in a test phase since 1 October 2014 and became operational at the end of 2014, when strong winds created negative prices despite the new connection.^[6] It was officially inaugurated by Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark and Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway on 12 March 2015.^[7] 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.^[1] The 300 million DKK Prysmian land cable on the Danish side is approximately 90 kilometres (56 mi), while the 137 kilometres (85 mi) subsea cable and the 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) Norwegian land cable is to be made by Nexans for 638 million DKK.^[8] Converter stations were built by ABB, as for Skagerrak 1–3.^[9] The combined budget is 2.8-3.2 billion DKK.^[8][10]

The technology used will be VSC, capable of black start. Although thyristor-based converters have a loss of only 0.7%, the IGBTs of VSC get close with a loss of 0.8 to 1%. Skagerrak 1 and 2 currently use Skagerrak 3 as a return cable, but 1 and 2 will be coupled so that Skagerrak 4 can use number 3 for returns.^[11] Some of the 24 fiber pairs may be rented for business by telecommunications companies.^[12]

Sites

Waypoints

See also

• Baltic Cable
• Kontek
• Konti-Skan
• NORD.LINK
• NorNed
• Scotland-Norway interconnector

References

External links

• Description of Cross-Skagerrak 3
• Pictures
• More pictures
• Animation of Skagerrak 4