NorNed is a long

high-voltage direct current A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system (also called a power superhighway or an electrical superhighway) uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating cur ...

submarine power cable A submarine power cable is a transmission cable for carrying electric power below the surface of the water.Feda in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

and the seaport of

Eemshaven Eemshaven (; en, Ems Harbor) is a seaport in the province of Groningen in the north of the Netherlands. In 1968, the Dutch government declared the Ems estuary ( Eemsmond) to be an economic key region. One of the key developments for the regi ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, which interconnects both countries'

electrical grid An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...

s. It was once the longest submarine power cable in the world. Budgeted at €550 million, and completed at a cost of €600m, the NorNed cable is a bipolar HVDC link with a voltage of ±450 kV and a capacity of 700 MW. NorNed is a joint project of the Norwegian

transmission system operator File:Electricity grid simple- North America.svg, 380px, Simplified diagram of AC electricity grid from generation stations to consumers rect 2 243 235 438 Power station rect 276 317 412 556 Transformer rect 412 121 781 400 Electric power transmis ...

Statnett Statnett is a Norwegian state owned enterprise responsible for owning, operating and constructing the stem power grid in Norway. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway. Statnett also owns 30% of the Nord Pool Spot along with other Nor ...

and its Dutch counterpart

TenneT TenneT is a transmission system operator in the Netherlands and in a large part of Germany. ''TenneT B.V.'' is the national electricity transmission system operator of the Netherlands, headquartered in Arnhem. Controlled and owned by the Dutch ...

. The cable system itself and the two converter stations were produced by ABB.

History

Installation of the first sections started in early 2006 and the final section was laid by the end of 2007. On the Dutch shore, TenneT has connected the cable to the 380 kV Dutch high‑voltage grid. In Feda, Statnett has done the same for the 300 kV Norwegian transmission grid. Commercial operation started on 5 May 2008 with a capacity auction. The first commercial power transfer took place on 6 May 2008. After two months of operation, the cable generated revenues of approximately €50 million. In the business case drawn up for the NorNed cable, annual revenues were estimated at €64 million. NorNed has been included in

European Market Coupling Company European Market Coupling Company, EMCC or emcc, is a provider of congestion management services for cross-border electrical interconnectors. This is done by means of ''market coupling'', in particular ''tight volume coupling''. EMCC is a joint ...

operations as of 12 January 2011. The internal grid in Norway is sometimes not capable of handling enough power for NorNed and

Cross-Skagerrak Skagerrak is the name of a 1,700 MW high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission facility between Tjele (Denmark) and Kristiansand (Norway). It is owned and operated by Statnett in Norway, and Energinet in Denmark. The lines connect the hydr ...

, and capacity for these cables is then artificially limited. The cable had a fault in 2011, causing 7 weeks out of operation. A fault was discovered in May 2022, causing a shutdown of operations. Operations are expected to resume in October 2022.

Technology

Although classed as a "bipolar" HVDC scheme, the NorNed scheme is unusual for a Line-Commutated (

thyristor A thyristor () is a solid-state semiconductor device with four layers of alternating P- and N-type materials used for high-power applications. It acts exclusively as a bistable switch (or a latch), conducting when the gate receives a current ...

-based) HVDC scheme since there is just one 12-pulse converter at each end of the scheme, midpoint-grounded at Eemshaven. With voltage-source converter-based HVDC systems, this arrangement with the two high voltage cables at equal and opposite voltages but only a single converter at each end is referred to as a ''Symmetrical monopole''. Consequently, with a DC voltage of ±450 kV, the converter for the NorNed project has a terminal to terminal DC voltage rating of 900 kV, making it (as of 2012) the highest voltage rating of any HVDC converter in the world. The connection has a loss of 4.2% (95.8% efficiency).

Sites

Trading mechanism

NorNed is the first power link between the Nordic electrical transmission system Nordel and the continent that is planned to be open to the power market. The main trading over the link is presumed to be one day ahead spot market trading based on the price difference between the markets. In spite of quite equal average spot market prices, the hour-by-hour differences are quite significant most of the time. The way the power exchanges will be compensated was to be agreed, and the direct net income from the trade is to be shared 50/50 between TenneT and Statnett.

References

External links

{{GeoGroup
The NorNed Project (Statnett website)

The NorNed Project (TenneT website)

The NorNed Project (ABB website)

Weekly exchange
(

Nord Pool Nord Pool AS is a pan-European power exchange. Nord Pool has a main office in Oslo and further offices in Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Berlin and London. The company is owned by the European exchange operator Euronext as well as TSO Holding, ...