Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Transmission, the transmission arm of UK energy firm Scottish and Southern Electricity (SSE), has named Sumitomo Electric Van Oord Consortium as the preferred bidder for the proposed Shetland 2 high-voltage direct current (HVDC) subsea link cable.
This partnership of Sumitomo Electric Industries and subsea cable installation company Van Oord Offshore Wind UK will now continue contractual discussions to manufacture and install the Shetland 2 HVDC subsea link.
Contract negotiations are ongoing while SSEN Transmission awaits energy regulator Ofgem’s finalised regulatory framework for Shetland 2.
Once completed, the Shetland 2 HVDC cable will enable three ScotWind offshore wind farms to connect to the UK power grid, adding 1.8GW of wind power.
Sumitomo Electric Group, a Japanese manufacturer of electric wire and optical fibre cables, has made a major investment into a new cable manufacturing facility in Nigg, Scotland, to deliver the project. This upcoming facility will be Sumitomo’s first European cable factory.
Rob McDonald, managing director of SSEN Transmission, said: “We are delighted to reach Preferred Bidder Status with Sumitomo Electric Industries and its subsea cable delivery partner, Van Oord Offshore Wind UK, for the manufacture and installation of the Shetland 2 HVDC subsea link.”
Osamu Inoue, president of Sumitomo Electric Group, added: “I am pleased to announce the commencement of this innovative high-voltage cable factory in Scotland, and sincerely appreciate SSEN Transmission’s decision to select us as the preferred bidder of the Shetland 2 project to enable our significant investment here in the UK.
“Transmission cables are essential infrastructures that make the so-called energy transition to renewables into reality.”
Scotland and HVDC
Scotland’s status as a powerhouse for offshore wind power has made it a hub for HVDC cables. As well as the first Shetland subsea HVDC, which will connect the Shetland Islands to the main British power grid when completed in 2024, Scotland and the waters surrounding it play host to the Eastern Green Link 1 project, currently under construction between Torness, Scotland and England’s County Durham.
While not yet finished, the project’s successor, a subsea “electricity superhighway” between Peterhead, Scotland, and Drax, England, has been approved and is expected to begin construction in 2024.
Additionally, the University of Aberdeen is home to a research centre for HVDC tech, which recently announced it had joined a European initiative to reduce the use of sulphur hexafluoride, a chemical with a global warming potential 25,200 times greater than carbon dioxide, in the power sector.
