Elia is Belgium’s high-voltage transmission system operator (30 kV to 400 kV), operating more than 8,600 km of lines and underground cables throughout Belgium. Elia operates the grid in Belgium, including the offshore grid. Elia’s main responsibilities concern the development and maintenance of the grid, the management of the balance between the consumption and generation of energy and the facilitation of access to the market. Elia also develops innovative solutions in order to integrate renewables into the system, to balance the network and to put the consumer really at the center of the future energy system.
As part of the Elia Group, 50Hertz Transmission GmbH (50Hertz) is responsible for the operation, maintenance, planning and expansion of the 380/220 kilovolt transmission network in its control zone, which covers the federal states of Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Hamburg. 50Hertz is responsible for the network connection of the offshore wind farms (OWFs) within the 12-mile-zone as well as the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Baltic Sea.
Both Elia and 50Hertz will build offshore grid connections to connect offshore wind in Belgium and in Germany in the coming years. To support the development of a joint substation concept and to prepare necessary documentation for the tendering of offshore substations Elia Group has awarded KCI the engineers as her Platform Design Consultant.
To contribute to Europe and Belgium’s ambitions for the Energy Transition, Elia has foreseen to extend its offshore high voltage grid. The grid shall connect the new Belgian windfarms situated within the “Princess Elisabeth Windfarm zone”.
The concept that Elia currently considers is to build multiple offshore AC 220kV platforms, within the Princess Elisabeth windfarm zone located approx. 50 km off the Belgian coastline. The platforms will include transformers to step-up the inter-array voltage of the wind turbines to 220 kV, eliminating the need for the windfarm owners to install a platform of their own.
50Hertz is responsible for the offshore grid connection for the Designated Offshore Windfarm Development Area O-1.3 including a 50Hertz owned and operated platform and a new substation onshore as part of the project Ostwind 3.
After her participation in the development of Elia’s MOG1, KCI the engineers is very grateful to be selected again for these great next developments of the Elia/ 50Hertz Group.