COMPANY PROFILE
2015
TenneT
www.tennet.eu | +31 (0) 800 83 66 388
41 million end users and counting Editorial: Harriet Pattison
A leading European electricity transmission system operator (TSO) in the Netherlands and across Germany, TenneT now ranks among the Top 5 TSOs in Europe today. Total World Energy speaks to Managing Director of TenneT Offshore, Wilfried Breuer, who explains the status of the latest grid connections and TenneT’s continued commitment to sustainable energy… Q: Tell us about the history of TenneT? When did the organisation start up? TenneT can look back on more than 100 years of experience in the power transmission business. By the end of the 19th century various local energy companies were responsible for transmitting electricity in the Netherlands. Some of these companies merged in to regional electricity providers during the years. In 1949 these regional electricity companies finally merged to Sep N.V. the predecessor company of TenneT. In 1998 the Dutch state founded TenneT Transmission System Operator (TSO) B.V. with the mandate to operate the national transmission grid for electricity. Since then, TenneT has been responsible for the power transmission system in the
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Netherlands. In May 2009 E.ON AG founded transpower stromübertragungs GmbH with the mandate to operate the German part of the transmission grid for electricity which was owned by E.ON AG. As of 31st December 2009, TenneT Holding acquired all E.ON AG shares of transpower and founded the first international transmission system operator in Europe. In October 2010 transpower changed its name to TenneT TSO GmbH. TenneT holding and its subsidiaries TenneT TSO B.V., TenneT TSO GmbH and TenneT Offshore GmbH are responsible for planning, expanding and operating the transmission grid on and offshore in the Netherlands and large parts of Germany. TenneT Holding is located in
TenneT Arnhem (The Netherlands). The German headquarter is located in Bayreuth.
Q: What is the organisation’s core business and main activities? TenneT is the first international TSO in Europe. TenneT owns more the 21,000 km of high and extra high voltage (ehv) power lines and ranks among the top five TSOs in Europe. The core business of the Dutch state owned company is operating, maintaining and further developing the transmission grid in the Netherlands and large parts of Germany. TenneT operates overhead power lines and underground cables on land and offshore. In Germany TenneT TSO GmbH is one of four TSOs and operates all 220kV and 380kV power lines in its control area. TenneT’s control area is the largest of all German TSOs and covers 40% of the German territory. It forms a corridor of 140.000 km2 reaching from the Danish border in the North to the Alps in the South. More than 20 million German citizens can rely on the secure power supply provided by TenneT TSO GmbH. Since the coastal area of Germany and the Netherlands forms part of TenneT’s control area, TenneT is responsible for connecting all wind farms in the Dutch and German North Sea waters to the power grid onshore. TenneT TSO GmbH and TenneT Offshore GmbH
will invest about 11 bn. EUR within the next ten years to fulfil their tasks in Germany. The necessary grid expansion is mainly driven by the decision of the German Government to intensively promote renewable energy sources and shut down all nuclear power plants by 2022 - core elements of the so called Energiewende. TenneT with its investments is the single largest investor into the German Energiewende.
Q: What is TenneT’s current footprint? Is the organisation planning for further expansion? Is there scope for movement into other industry sectors? What is the target for the organisation over the next 2-3 years? Consolidation? New services? TenneT mainly focuses on the transmission of electricity in Northwest Europe. There are no plans to venture into further industry sectors. However, we are carefully observing the TSO market. As a successful company we want to further grow steadily and expand our activities within our core business and supply area. TenneT wants to further focus on business consolidation under one company active as two TSOs in two different countries. New services are already required for the asset management and service of the offshore HVDC transmission systems installed in the German beight of the North Sea.
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Q: What is the current progress of the three grid connections - Sylwin1, HelWin1 and HelWin2 – are these still on schedule to take up commercial operation this year? In February 2015 TenneT completed HelWin1 the second offshore grid connection this year. Just a few days before, TenneT finished the first large-category offshore connection with BorWin2 (800 MW). The HelWin1 connection is capable of transmitting around 600 MW of offshore wind power from the German North Sea. With the completion of HelWin1, TenneT now provides around 2,000 MW of transmission capacity in the German North Sea. With HelWin1 TenneT achieved a further milestone in terms of the offshore expansion targets of the German Federal Government. HelWin1 is now the second offshore grid connection system in this performance category which offers the possibility of connecting more than one offshore wind farm. HelWin1 is already the fifth connection that TenneT has commissioned at sea. Another seven grid connection systems are under construction. Overall, TenneT expects at least 7,100 MW of connection capacity to be constructed in the North Sea by 2019. TenneT is therefore ahead of schedule of expansion targets of the German Federal Government of 6,500 MW offshore wind by 2020. SylWin1 is already installed and in trial operation. TenneT expects to take over SylWin1 from the general contractor in the second quarter of 2015. SylWin1 has a transmission capacity of 864 MW and will be the most remote grid connection so far. The fourth and fifth grid
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connection that is expected to be taken over in 2015 will be HelWin2 and DolWin1. HelWin2 will transmit 690 MW of electricity and is going to start trial operation in the first quarter of 2015. Dolwin2 is expected to start trial operation in second quarter 2015. TenneT expects to take the projects over from the general contractors after successful trial operation before summer 2015.
Q: How would you position yourself in the market compared with the competition? Is there significant competition? TenneT TSO GmbH is one of four TSOs in Germany. Since every TSO is responsible for its own control area there the business is rather characterized by cooperation than competition. This also applies to our business relation to European partners. The other three German TSOs are Amprion, 50Hertz und TransnetBW. The integration of a north western European market zone is one of TenneT’s main focus beyond Germany. Therefore, TenneT invests constantly in cross-border connections and realizes them together with neighbouring TSOs. Among these interconnectors is the subsea cable, NorNed, which is connecting the electricity markets of the Netherlands and Norway since 2008. Another international cooperation is the subsea cable BritNed between the Netherlands and Great Britain. TenneT plans further interconnecting subsea cables between Germany and Norway (Nord.Link) as well as between the Netherlands and Denmark (COBRA). Integrating the north western European electricity market is not only
TenneT
important to guarantee the energy supply of the future, but also counteracts high electricity prices. Based on commissioned projects and further plans, TenneT is a core facilitator of high-voltage transmission interconnections around the North Sea states and markets.
Q: What are some of the key projects TenneT has been involved with over the past few years? Tell us about the BorWin2 grid connection – what was the timeline for this project and what role will it play? Offshore wind energy largely contributes to the success of the German Energiewende and plays a major role in the energy mix of the future. Since December 2006 TenneT TSO GmbH is responsible by German Energy Law to provide offshore windfarms in the North Sea with the necessary grid connections and to operate these connections. TenneT already invested more than EUR €9 billion in offshore infrastructure. This makes TenneT the biggest investor in the German Energiewende. With all our offshore grid connections already in operation or awarded, more than 7000 MW of offshore wind energy can be transmitted to the grid onshore. According to German law, TenneT is obliged to operate grid connections with an overall capacity of 12000 MW until 2024. TenneT is well on its way to accomplishing these targets in time. The first alternating current grid connection, which is in operation since 2009, connects the offshore windfarm alpha ventus with the German
onshore grid. Our first large scale direct current grid connection is BorWin1 which is transmitting electricity since 2010. This has been the first project using HVDC technology to collect offshore generated electricity. The second direct current grid connection (BorWin2) is operational since January 2015. BorWin2 provides a crucial contribution to the German Energiewende. BorWin2 was the first of offshore grid connection systems in this capacity class, which will be completed in 2015. In addition, this is the first system enabling the connection of more than one offshore wind farm. A test operation of several weeks preceded the completion of BorWin2. Wind power from the Global Tech I wind farm could already be fed into the grid during this phase. Furthermore, 50% of the grid connection capacity is reserved for the Veja Mate wind farm. BorWin2 also marks the completion of a direct current grid connection with a length of 200 km for offshore wind farms. A consortium consisting of Siemens and Prysmian as contractors of TenneT had already finished the construction of offshore and onshore converter stations in summer 2014. BorWin2 is a joint investment project of TenneT and Mitsubishi Corporation.
Q: Tell us about TenneT’s role with HVDC technology – how has it been implemented in past and present projects? HVDC technology is mainly applied, until recently, for operation of longer submarine cable transmission
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projects. TenneT had invested in this technology already over ten years ago with BritNed and NorNed interconnectors. With the additional application of HVDC technology to connect remote offshore windfarms, TenneT is now by far the most advanced user of this innovative transmission technology among the European TSOs. Building on this portfolio and experience and due to the increasing demand of transmission capacity onshore, led to the planning of the first HVDC power link in the control area of TenneT. In order to make use of the increasing amount of wind energy in northern Germany and to compensate the decreasing power supply of nuclear power plants in the south, especially power lines that connect northern and southern Germany are necessary. According to the grid development plan of 2014, the German TSO will have to build 3,500 km of extra high voltage lines to meet the demands of a secure electricity supply. 2,000km will be realized as HVDC power lines. The project Sued.Link will be realized in an 800 km long corridor together with the German TSO TransnetBW. From 2022 on Sued.Link will be in operation and transmit 4 GW of electricity
With the increasing demand of the German Energiewende, TenneT became more of a project driven company within the last few years. TenneT has been increasing its organization and workforce in recent years. A majority of our staff have not spent many years with the company, which creates a motivated and open minded approach, but also challenging environment to pass on experience and know-how. Our success is based on highly motivated and extremely well trained staff in all units within TenneT. As one of Germany’s top employers, we most certainly provide our employees with the training necessary to fulfil their tasks. According to the German magazine FOCUS, TenneT is the number one employer among all German medium sized companies in the energy business. This award is based on surveys that also touched topics such as career opportunities.
Q: What is required from the staff of TenneT? Do they need experience in a similar role? Can full training be given for all positions? What has been the key to the organisation’s success over the years?
The German Energiewende and the recent offshore program of the Dutch Government definitely influence our business. Just last year TenneT was mandated to connect the Dutch offshore windfarms in the North Sea to the Dutch
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Q : I s t h e c o n s t a n t d r i v e t o w a rd s ‘ g re e n e r ’ b u s i n e s s h a v i n g a n i m p a c t (positively or negatively) on the organisation?
TenneT onshore grid. TenneT gained a lot of experience with these kinds of projects in Germany. The Dutch Government shared our view that no company in the world has more expertise in this business than TenneT and mandated us to build five grid connections. The future allocation of electricity production will drastically change within the upcoming years. Already today the centres of electricity production tend to be more remote than they used to be. As a consequence we have to bridge the growing distances between production and consumption with new power lines. According to the German Government 80% of all electricity will be provided by renewable sources. Most of these generation capacities are located in the north, while in the south of Germany industries and big cities need a constant and reliable power supply as well. In 2023, with all nuclear power plants being out of service, the south of Germany will have to import 33% of its electricity demand. This is only possible when the TSOs provide the necessary grid infrastructure. Therefore, TenneT is strengthening the mashed grid onshore and
will add north-south HVDC connections to the existing ehv AC power grid. Apart from that the feed in of electricity became more volatile with increasing capacities of wind and solar energy. In order to cover the times when the demand for electricity is high but the weather conditions don’t allow a high electricity production through wind and solar energy, it is our task to cover this demand with a sophisticated management of power reserves. This management became more and more demanding over the past years. Today our experts in the control centres have to intervene around three times per day to secure the power supply. Just five years ago they had to intervene three times per year! Furthermore, we are conscious of the regional and local impact of our activities on people and the environment, for example when planning and constructing new high voltage lines. Therefore, corporate social responsibility plays a significant role in our daily business. Moreover, we buy green certificates for grid losses in our control area and started a programme to reduce SF6 emissions
A bridge across the sea. Proven Siemens HVDC grid access solutions enables the harvesting of wind power generated far away from shore.
Siemens grid access solutions create the necessary accessibility to offshore wind farms that are long distances from the m a i n l a n d ’s e l e c t r i c a l g r i d s, b y the usage of high-voltage directc u r r e n t ( H V D C ) t r a n s m i s s i o n s. Implemented into a Siemens substation platform, this transmission technology allows the perfectly reliable and efficient
transmission of large amounts o f e n e r g y, s u p p l y i n g t h o u s a n d s of households with renewable w i n d e n e r g y. A l r e a d y o p e r a t i o n a l platforms like the BorWin beta or HelWin alpha, already handed o v e r t o t h e c u s t o m e r s, a r e p e r f e c t examples of Siemens’ expertise and reliability and are only the beginning of Siemens’ dedication t o o f f s h o r e g r i d a c c e s s e s.
siemens.com/energy/grid-access-solutions
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