Electrical Infrastructure & System Integration
Developing reliable and cost-effective electric power components and system solutions to enable profitable large-scale deployment of offshore wind energy in the North Sea.
Work Package 3 is led by Marte Gammelsæter from SINTEF Energy Research and Magnus Korpås from NTNU. Its focus areas are electric power components and system integration of wind energy (WE).
Anticipated results:
- Reliable and cost-efficient electric power components for
energy collection - Optimised electrical architectures and operational solutions
for cost- and energy-efficient grid connection



Hypothesis
Large-scale offshore wind power can be collected, transmitted and integrated in existing electrical
power systems in a cost-efficient and reliable manner.
Methodology and research tasks
Infrastructure
AC-based export systems, thermal-electrical cable models, subsea substations, new component design, models for degradation and lifetime assessment.
System integration
Development of a framework for transient analysis and stability assessment of large hybrid AC/DC power systems offshore, advanced ancillary services provision from WFs, models to identify economically robust offshore grid configurations and improved legal and regulatory framework.
Innovations
Main results from 2022
Electrical infrastructure
- Conference paper on electro-thermal cable models published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
- Conference paper on power electronics converters and architecture for modular HVDC wind generators published in POWERCON
- Journal paper on steel armour modelling submitted to IEEE Trans. Power Delivery
- Conference paper on models for degradation and lifetime assessment submitted to EERA DeepWind 2023
- Two spin-off projects: KSP SeaConnect and KSP NewLifT
System integration
- Conference paper on models to identify economically robust offshore grid configurations submitted to EERA DeepWind 2023
- Journal paper on advanced ancillary services provision from wind farms submitted to the IEEE journal
- Conference paper on market challenges for 100% renewable power systems submitted to the International conference on the European energy market (EEM22)
- Newspaper op-ed on “30 GW wind power timeseries analysis” (Dagens Næringsliv – article in Norwegian)
- Memo on Small-Signal State-Space Model MATLAB tool for interconnected AC/MTDC grids completed (in-kind from MODULATOR)

Previous results
Electrical infrastructure
- PhD candidate working on “Power electronics architecture and control methods for a HVDC generator for offshore wind”.
- Abstract submitted on electro-thermal cable models, full paper to be submitted in 2022.
- Memo on models for degradation and lifetime assessment, paper to be submitted in 2022.
- PhD candidate working on “Novel Modular HVDC Generator for Offshore Wind” (associated with NorthWind but financed through other sources).
System integration
- PhD candidate working on “Energy storage for grid services in HVDC connected offshore wind farms”.
- Memo on models to identify economically robust offshore grid configurations, paper to be submitted in 2022.
- Report on “Design and Operation of Energy Systems with Large Amounts of Variable Generation” (IEA Task 25).
- Newspaper op-ed on Three prerequisites for Norwegian offshore wind success
(Dagens Næringsliv – the article is in Norwegian).
