NordLink, the “green cable”, which for the first time will directly connect the electricity markets of Germany and Norway, has reached another important milestone. With the pull-in of the submarine cable beneath the dyke at Büsum in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein on 19 June, the 154-kilometre section from the cable landing point at the dyke through the Wadden Sea and the open sea to the Danish territorial waters is almost complete. TSCNET shareholder TenneT, the Dutch-German transmission system operator (TSO), which is cooperating with the Norwegian TSO Statnet on this European project of common interest (PCI), had started to install the submarine cables for NordLink in the German Bight last year.

“With today’s successful pulling of the subsea cable beneath the land protection dyke, we have practically completed the laying of the NordLink subsea cable,” comments TenneT Managing Director Tim Meyerjürgens. Now the 54-kilometre onshore cable section will be successively laid from the dyke to the converter site in Wilster. Since the laying of the submarine cable in Danish and Norwegian waters is also almost concluded with only a few remaining works, and the construction of the 53km overhead line on the Norwegian mainland is progressing well, NordLink is expected to be commissioned as planned in 2020.

For the submarine cable work, TenneT was in close consultation with nature conservation authorities to ensure that operations in the Wadden Sea National Park were conducted as carefully as possible. Upon completion, the NordLink high-voltage DC interconnector will have a capacity of 1,400MW and a total length of 623km. By coupling different renewable energies and forms of storage – Norwegian hydropower plants with wind farms and solar parks from Germany – NordLink is a “green link” in the truest sense of the word.

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About one year after the first kilometres of submarine cables have been laid in the south Norwegian Vollesfjord, the cable work has now also started on the German NordLink side. Over the next few weeks, TSCNET shareholder TenneT, the Dutch-German transmission system operator (TSO), will lay 99km of cable into the Wadden Sea floor. This first section lies between the Büsum dike in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein and the southwest of the island of Sylt.

In 2019, another 55km will be laid in the German offshore area up to the border of Danish territorial waters. There, the cable end will then be connected to the 228km long cable section to be laid in the Danish North Sea area. TenneT’s submarine cable work is carried out in close coordination with nature conservation authorities. The TSO implements the respective requirements of the competent federal and regional agencies, ministries and administrations strictly to ensure that the Wadden Sea National Park is treated as considerately as possible.

The Nordlink high voltage DC interconnector between Germany and Norway will have a capacity of 1,400MW and a total length of 623km. By coupling different renewable energies and storage forms ‒ Norwegian hydropower plants and wind and solar farms from Germany ‒ NordLink is a “green link” in the truest sense of the word. TenneT cooperates in this European Project of Common Interest (PCI) with the Norwegian TSO Statnet.

The laying of sea cables is accompanied by work on the mainland to connect the respective converter stations. The construction of an overhead line on the Norwegian side is expected to be completed in 2019, and on the German mainland, NordLink will be laid as an underground cable between the Büsum dike and the Wilster converter station starting in 2019. Completion of the entire NordLink interconnector is scheduled for 2020.

Linkup
> See TenneT press release (html)