SS17 Offshore Energy Islands/Hubs

ABSTRACT

Offshore energy hubs are a hot topic in the energy sector. Governments and investors alike have high expectations for offshore energy hubs as crucial for the energy transition.
The world’s first energy islands will be constructed in Danish and Belgian waters, exploiting the immense wind resources in the North and the Baltic Seas. They will serve as offshore hubs that can create optimal conditions for the establishment, operation, and innovation with respect to offshore wind and provide better and cost-effective connections between the offshore wind farms and the energy systems in the region. As such the energy hubs will enable large-scale sector coupling in the region and will function as green power plants at sea.
High voltage direct current (HVDC) technology is indispensable for the deployment of offshore energy hubs. With its high-power transmission capabilities, different technological options, applicable topologies and precise power flow controllability, HVDC systems are key for designing reliable power grids. To fully exploit the potentialities of HVDC, more research, innovation and demonstration actions (R&I&D) are needed.
The session will introduce the concept of offshore energy islands/hubs, present the status of their development, and discuss the main challenges in designing and operating these electron metropolises, as addressed by the two TSOs. At the same time, the session will also present European Union’s Strategic Energy Technology HVDC Implementation plan, introducing and discussing the identified actions in key areas: (i) Technology; (ii) Control and Protection; (iii) Operation and (iv) Planning. Finally, the very timely topic of HVDC interoperability will be introduced, with references to the only European operating multi-vendor HVDC link and one of the largest EU projects on the topic, InterOpera.

The agenda :

• Welcome and introduction, Prof. Nicolaos A. Cutululis, DTU, Denmark – 5 min
• Offshore Energy Islands in Fitim Kryezi, Denmark, Energinet – 15 min
• Offshore Energy Islands in Belgium, TBD, Elia, Belgium – 15 min
• HVDC technology for the Mediterranean area, Dr. Angelo L’Abbate, RSE, Italy – 15 min
• SET Plan HVDC Implementation plan, Prof. Dirk Van Hertem, KU Leuven, Belgium – 15 min
• Panel discussion – 25 min

CHAIR

Nicolaos A. Cutululis, Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

SPEAKERS

Prof. Dirk Van Hertem, KU Leuven, Belgium
Prof. Nicolaos A. Cutululis, DTU, Denmark

Fitim Kryezi, Energinet, Denmark

Dr. Angelo L’Abbate, RSE
Clement Hardy, Elia, Belgium

SHORT BIO

	Nicolaos A. Cutululis (M’06, SM’16) is Professor in Offshore Wind Power Integration, based in the Department of Wind and Energy Systems at the Technical University of Denmark. His main research area is integration and operation of wind power moving towards 100% RES power systems, with a special focus on offshore wind and HVDC. He is active in shaping the wind power research agenda at European level, being a MB member of EERA JP Wind and Ex-co member for ETIPWind. He has co-chaired the SET Plan TWG drafting the first Implementation Plan for HVDC.
	Dirk Van Hertem (S’02-SM’09) graduated as a M.Eng. in 2001 from the KHK, Geel, Belgium and as a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from KU Leuven, Belgium in 2003. In 2009, he has obtained his PhD, also from KU Leuven. In 2010, Dirk Van Hertem was a member of EPS group at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), in Stockholm. Since spring 2011 he is back at the University of Leuven where he is an associate professor in the ELECTA group. His special fields of interest are decision support for grid operators, power system operation and control in systems with FACTS and HVDC and building the transmission system of the future, including offshore grids and the supergrid concept
	Fitim Kryezi is Senior Lead of the electrical design: North Sea Energy Island at Energinet the Danish TSO. He holds a Master of Engineering (MEng) in Electrical Power Systems and High Voltage Engineering from Aalborg University back in 2015. Employed at Energinet since 2015 manly involved in HVDC project both as technical lead and Project Manager. Chairman of the The project “MULTI-DC: Innovative Methods and Optimal Operation of Multiple HVDC Connections and Grids” (MultiDC), an international program were 3 universities, 2 TSO and Hitachi collaboration. Has worked with Energy Islands for 5 years has part of the team who started the North Sea Wind Power Hub Consortium (NSWPH). Currently has the overall responsibility of developing the electrical design: North Sea Energy Island as Project Manager.
	Angelo L’Abbate graduated in Electrical Engineering at the Politecnico di Bari, Italy, in 1999. In 2003–2004 he received his PhD in Electrical Energy Systems at the Politecnico di Bari, Italy, in partnership with the University of Dortmund, Germany. In 2004–2005 he was active researcher at Mediterranean Agency for Remote Sensing (MARS), Benevento, Italy, and at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, as CNR-NATO Fellow. In 2005-2008, he was at the European Commission – Joint Research Centre – Institute for Energy, Petten, the Netherlands. Since 2009 he has been working with RSE – Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico (former CESI RICERCA/ERSE), Milan, Italy, where he is now a Senior Research Engineer in the Transmission Planning and Operation Group of the Energy Systems Development Department. His fields of interest include modeling and planning of power T&D grids and systems, FACTS, HVDC, RES and DG integration, innovative technologies, overlay and global grid. He has been and is currently involved in several Italian and European projects. He is an IEEE PES and CIGRE Member and actively contributes to CIGRE and IEEE activities: he is currently involved and Task leader in CIGRE WG C1.44 “Global interconnected and sustainable electricity system: Effects of storage, demand response and trading rules”. He is one of the two Italian representatives in the European SET Plan WG on HVDC and DC.
	Clément Hardy is Project Leader for the Princess Elisabeth Island (PEI) HVDC Substations at Elia, the Belgian TSO. He holds a Master’s degree in Electro-Mechanical Engineering (Energy focus) from the UCL-EPL school in Louvain-la-Neuve (BE). After graduating in 2017, Clément directly started at Elia as Project Leader for the onshore substations, with an ever-growing portfolio ranging over 80+ substations, from small distribution to the largest interconnection substations. In 2022, Clément was selected to join the ambitious PEI infrastructure project team in the early development stage as technical lead for the HVDC Substations. Keen to continue developing his large projects management skills and master the many technical challenges of HVDC and offshore projects, his fields of interest are the development and implementation of the necessary technical solutions to today’s major energy challenges.