50Hertz, Elering agree to build Baltic cable

German outfit 50Hertz and neighbouring grid operators launch offshore wind cable project

German electricity transmission system operator (TSO) 50Hertz and its counterparts from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have agreed to intensify cooperation in the field of offshore wind energy and grid connections.

In a Letter of Intent (LoI), 50Hertz and Elering (Estonia) have agreed in principle on a joint hybrid submarine cable project called Baltic WindConnector in the Baltic Sea between Estonia and Germany.

The commitments were made by CEOs Stefan Kapferer (50Hertz), Taavi Veskimägi (Elering, Estonia), Gunta Jēkabsone (AST, Latvia) and Tomas Varneckas (Litgrid, Lithuania at today's Baltic Offshore Wind Forum.

The event was jointly organised by the German Federal Foreign Office, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German Energy Agency (dena).

The Baltic WindConnector will have a length of around 750 km and will land on the coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

With a hybrid interconnector, wind farms feed their electricity into a grid system that can also be used for European electricity trading.

For this purpose, it is necessary to build one or more converter facilities off the mainland coast of Estonia, where the electricity can be collected, transformed to a higher voltage level, converted into direct current and then transported to the connected countries as required.

Kapferer said: "The Baltic Sea still offers a lot of potential for the expansion of offshore wind energy and therefore for transnational projects in order to tap this potential as efficiently as possible via hybrid interconnectors or energy islands.

"Cooperation with the Baltic states and their stronger connection to the continental European electricity interconnection system is important for a climate-neutral Europe and also of great importance in terms of security policy.

"The Baltic WindConnector is intended to be a first important step on this path."