Hitachi Energy uses Grid-eXpand™ in China
Hitachi Energy’s Grid-eXpand™ reduces the grid connection platform’s size and weight and lowers the offshore power transmission capital and operating cost.
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China, Shandong Peninsula: Hitachi Energy’s Grid-eXpand™ reduces the grid connection platform’s size and weight and lowers the offshore power transmission capital and operating cost.
Hitachi Energy has provided State Power Investment Corporation Limited (SPIC), one of China’s largest power companies, with the country’s first 220 kV modular and prefabricated offshore grid connection for the 500 MW Shandong Peninsula South V wind farm off China’s northeast coast.
Owing to Hitachi Energy’s inventive portfolio of Grid-eXpand modular and prefabricated grid connections, the compact, lightweight solution scaled down the platform’s size by approx. 30 % and its weight by approx. 20 %, corresponding to approx. 700 tons of steel and other costly materials. This significantly lowered the cost of building the platform, transporting it to the wind farm and placing it offshore.
The Grid-eXpand solution also shortened the delivery time by eight weeks compared to a conventional offshore grid connection. Each module was pre-engineered, pre-assembled and pretested before delivery. Afterwards, it was shipped as a single prefabricated unit to be promptly erected on the platform at the shipyard.
The global offshore wind market is thriving in China. In 2021, 21.1 GW of new offshore wind capacity was installed globally in 2021, and 80 % of it in China.
“The offshore wind industry in China has entered a new era of grid parity, which places huge cost pressures on owner-developers like SPIC,” says Rui Wang, Project Manager at SPIC. “We selected Hitachi Energy for its expertise in offshore wind grid connections and its ability to provide a cost-reducing solution with fast-track delivery – our overriding priorities.”
The Hitachi Energy solution receives the power generated by 71 wind turbines at 35 kV and increases the voltage to an optimal 220 kV for transmission to the mainland power grid. It is expected that the project will generate 1.5 B kWh each year and save 460,000 tons of standard coal and 1.25 M tons of CO2 emissions a year.
Source: Hitachi Energy
#grid connection platform#Grid-eXpand#Hitachi Energy#offshore power transmission#State Power Investment Corporation Limited