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Insight Prysmian Magazine

An update on German Corridor developments

German Corridor developments

By 2030, 80% of Germany’s electricity should come from renewable sources. By 2050, this should be 100%. The German HVDC Power Transmission projects will significantly increase the supply of renewable energy to densely populated urban and industrial sites in the south of the country. Three HVDC underground cable interconnections will connect these areas to offshore wind capacity in the north of Germany.

Prysmian is enabling higher levels of power generation and interconnection than ever before. The buried lines for the SuedLink, SuedOstLink and A-Nord Corridor projects - the longest in the world - will use the latest high voltage cable technology from Prysmian.

The SuedOstLink ±525 kV underground HVDC link is the first to use extruded cables at such a high voltage. The solution further incorporates large copper conductor cables and Prysmian’s proprietary P-Laser insulation technology. This will enable transmission of 2GW power on a single system for the first time. The route starts in Bavaria and Prysmian is providing 550 km of cable with which 270 km of the route will be realised. Recently, work on the converters started following a tender period – a major project milestone. The first lots of cables have been manufactured. Delivery started with a total of nine drums, each weighing 83 tonnes and holding 1,750 metres of underground cable. These are being transported to an intermediate storage area. The SuedOstLink is to be finalised in 2025.

The SuedLink transmission will be the world’s largest 525 kV XLPE HVDC 2.0 GW interconnector, connecting the federal states of Schleswig-Holstein and Baden-Württemberg. A ±525 kV HVDC underground cable system is being installed. The entire route from Schleswig-Holstein to the northwest of Hamburg to Bavaria, measures 700 km, of which 580 km is covered by Prysmian cable. Completion is planned for 2026.

The EU has designated SuedLink a ‘Project of common interest’ (PCI). These are key infrastructure projects that link energy systems across EU countries. The project should help prevent spill-overs caused by surges in generation in Germany into the grids of neighbouring countries.

For the 300 km A-Nord transmission from Lower Saxony to Nordrhein-Westfalen, Prysmian is designing, manufacturing, supplying, laying, jointing, testing and commissioning a 1GW underground cable system. Prysmian will deliver a fully qualified ±525 kV high voltage DC cable system consisting of copper cables and a separate insulated metallic return cable. The System is also insulated with P-Laser technology. Project completion is planned for 2027.

Prysmian is working with dedicated local project engineering and management teams, providing all accessories and the integrated PRY-CAM monitoring system, and carrying out design and installation works. Quality and efficiency of the installation will be assured with optimised long length solutions.