The Anonymous Widower

World’s Largest-Of-Its-Kind Power Line To Deliver Clean Power To 1.8m UK Homes And Boost Energy Security

The title of this post, is the same as that as this press release from the UK Government.

These are the three bullet points of the press release.

• LionLink power line between UK and Netherlands will deliver enough electricity to power more homes than Manchester and Birmingham combined.
• Agreement made as Grant Shapps leads delegation of leading businesses to key North Sea Summit.
• Part of renewed Government drive to work with business to help grow the economy.

These three paragraphs outline the project.

The world’s largest multi-use electricity power line will be built under the North Sea, boosting UK energy supplies with enough to power 1.8 million homes – more than Birmingham and Manchester combined.

The new LionLink will connect the UK and the Netherlands with offshore wind farms, providing clean affordable and secure energy to Britain which will help cut household bills and drive Putin’s Russia further out of the energy market.

The cross-border electricity line will be only the second of its kind in the world, with the first having been built by Germany and Denmark. However, it will be able to carry more than four times the amount of electricity as its predecessor – making it the largest of its kind in terms of capacity anywhere in the world.

Note.

1. I suspect the LionLink will go via the Dogger Bank, where Danish, Dutch, German and UK territorial waters meet an we are already building 8 GW of fixed foundation offshore wind. The other countries are also active in the area.
2. The press release doesn’t mention, where the LionLink will make landfall in the UK.
3. Much of the connection will probably use the cables being laid for the Dogger Bank wind farms.
4. There is also no mention of the North Sea Wind Power Hub, which could be an artificial island on the Dogger Bank.

There is also a press release on the National Grid web site, which is entitled National Grid And TenneT Collaborate On Proposed First-Of-A-Kind Anglo-Dutch Electricity Link, which gives more details.

• The capacity is stated to be 2 GW.
• Like the current BritNed interconnector, the project will be a cooperation between National Grid And TenneT.
• TenneT is a limited liability company owned by the Dutch government, that is a transmission system operator in the Netherlands and in a large part of Germany.

There is also a diagram, showing how the LionLink will work, which includes these components.

• On the Dutch side, there is an offshore AC>DC Converter Station, which is connected to the Dutch electricity grid and one or more offshore wind farms.
• Across the border between the Dutch and UK Exclusive Economic Zones, there will be a HVDC cable.
• The HVDC cable will terminate in an onshore DC>AC Converter Station in the UK, which will be connected to the UK electricity grid.

No details of the two landfalls have been given.

More information is given in this article on offshoreWIND.biz, which is entitled UK And Netherlands Unveil Multi-Purpose Interconnector Plans.

• This shows a map of the North Sea with an interconnector running in a straight line between possibly Rotterdam and Bacton in Norfolk.
• A wind farm is shown connected to this interconnector.

This paragraph describes the windfarm and the interconnector.

LionLink, a multi-purpose interconnector that was announced today at the North Sea summit, could connect a Dutch offshore wind farm with a capacity of 2 GW to both countries via subsea interconnectors.

If the wind farm has a capacity of 2 GW, I would assume it can supply up to 2 GW to the UK and The Netherlands.

This is a classic system, that can be optimised by the application of sound principles.

All electricity generated by the wind farm must be used, stored or converted into green hydrogen.

Electricity will be distributed as to need.

Energy storage  or electrolysers could be sited at either end or even in the wind farm.

I would suspect that more wind farms could be connected to the interconnector.

The team, that write the control system for the grid will have a lot of fun!

BritNed

I have a feeling that National Grid and TenneT have taken a long hard commercial look at the electrical and financial performance of BritNed over the last year and decided, that a second connection would be to the mutual benefit of both companies, their customers and the UK and The Netherlands in general.

It would also be twice as difficult for terrorists sponsored by Putin to cut two cables.

Conclusion

This is a great leap forward for wind power in the North Sea and Europe.

April 24, 2023 - Posted by AnonW | Energy | BritNed Interconnector, Control Engineering, Denmark, Dogger Bank, Dogger Bank Wind Farms, Germany, Interconnectors, LionLink, Multi-Purpose Interconnector, National Grid, North Sea Wind Power Hub, Offshore Wind Power, TenneT, The Netherlands, Wind Power