Case Study 1 – East West Interconnector

The 500 MW East-West Interconnector HVDC Light® trans-mission system will connect the grids of Ireland and Wales.
This is the first HVDC Light project to use ±200 kV cables and the link is about 260 km long.

Ireland has plans to expand the wind power generation and the link will facilitate addition of renewables and give the possibility to export excess energy to the UK market and vice versa. The new link will also enchance security of supply in the Irish grid and allow Ireland and Britain access to more competition.

Additional customer benefits, due to the choice of the HVDC Light technology, are “black start”, a way of restoring power after a blackout without the aid of external energy sources, and active AC voltage support.

DATA

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Connection point Irish grid: Woodland
sea cable landing: Rush North Beach, Co. Dublin

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Connection point British grid: Deeside
sea cable landing: Barkby Beach, North Wales

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Operator: Eirgrid, Ireland

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Commercial operation: 2012

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Transmission technology: HVDC Light® by ABB

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Transmission capacity: 500 MW

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DC voltage: ± 200 kV

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AC voltage: 400 kV

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Cable route length: 261 km
– 186 km with parallel submarine cables
– 75 km with parallel land cables

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Featured submarine cable
– Extruded polymer insulated cable
– Conductor 1650 mm2 copper
– Steel armoring
– Diameter 117 mm
– Weight 39 kg/m

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Featured land cable
– Extruded polymer insulated cable
– Conductor 2210 mm2 aluminum
– Diameter 107 mm
– Weight 12 kg/m

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HVDC Light® converter stations: Convert alternate current (AC) to direct current (DC) and on the other side DC to AC.

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