Nexans

E.ON Netz uses aluminium underground cables from Nexans

Launch of a 9000-MW infrastructure project with 5.5-km long 110-kV underground cabling as the first stage of grid expansion on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein

E.ON Netz is using an aluminium underground cable from Nexans Deutschland in the expansion of its grid infrastructure for wind energy. In the administrative district of Dithmarschen, Nexans has installed a double circuit 110-kV underground cable system for E.ON – the first of its kind for a German customer – with a total length of around 5.5 km and an order volume of € 4 million. The section that has now been connected up is part of the concept of the federal state government of Schleswig-Holstein to transport wind power electricity inland along the coast in a 20-km wide corridor via underground cables. As part of the energy turnaround, E.ON Netz has embarked upon an infrastructure project that will enable a future feed-in of 9000 MW of electricity from offshore wind farms into the 380-kV transmission grid along the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein.
Enough transmission capacity for three large cities
The underground cable that has now been taken into operation has a cross-section of 2500 mm², and it is the first time that Nexans has installed a cable of its type in Germany. The underground aluminium cable installed at a depth of around 1.75 m in PE tubes between Dieksanderkoog and Marne has a slightly larger circumference than a comparable copper cable, but it makes up for this by being lighter and more economic overall. The transmission capacity of the cable system is 360 MW – enough power to supply the three cities of Flensburg, Kiel and Lübeck with electricity. As part of the cable installation work, E.ON has also started to modify the grid structure, adding a new transformer substation in Dieksanderkoog and upgrading the substation in Marne. The planning and construction work for the Nexans underground cable between Dieksanderkoog and Marne/West was completed in a record time of two and a half years, with the entire cable system taking just six months to install, including underground work.
Infrastructure project Weststromtrasse
Andreas Fricke from E.ON Netz is confident that the planned west coast wind energy power line project "Weststromtrasse" will help to take the strain off the grids. In Dithmarschen alone, around 1000 MW of wind energy is currently being generated that cannot always be fed into the grid. In an interview conducted with the newspaper "Norddeutsche Rundschau” on the occasion of the first section of the 110-kV line being taken into operation, Dr Robert Habeck – Schleswig-Holstein‘s Minister for Energy Turnaround, Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs – compared the necessity for this gigantic infrastructure project with the tasks involved in the reconstruction of East Germany after reunification. He explained that, once the 380-kV overhead grid line was complete, Schleswig-Holstein would have completed this important stage in the energy turnaround, but in addition he added that a power line for wind energy produced onshore was also part of the economic promise.
The 110-kV cable system is the first milestone in the grid expansion concept for Schleswig-Holstein and marks another contribution from Nexans to the grid expansion, an issue that is currently the subject of fervent debate. "I am really pleased that this cable, which is the first of its cross-section to be installed in Germany, is making a contribution to the energy turnaround", said Wolfram Flebbe, Project Manager at Nexans Deutschland, at the switching-on ceremony for the cable system.
Picture Map_cable_route_(Kabeltrasse).jpg:

Route for the double circuit underground aluminium cable system (map: Nexans)

Picture Start_Marne_West.jpg:

Project managers and construction managers from E.ON and the other companies involved in the building works at the switching-on ceremony for the underground cable (photo: E.ON)
Nexans Germany
Nexans Germany is one of the leading cable manufacturers in Europe. The company is offering an extensive range of high performance cables, systems, and components for the telecommunications and energy sectors, rounded off by superconducting materials and components, Cryoflex transfer systems and special machinery for the cable industry. Producing at manufacturing plants with 8,775 employees in Germany and abroad, the sales in 2012 amounts to approx. 923 Mio Euro. The full integration into the Nexans Group Nexans Germany also benefits from excellent opportunities to use the available synergies in all corporate fields, which not only applies to worldwide projects but also to research and development, the exchange of know-how, and to other areas. More information on www.nexans.de
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