- Cappeln-West substation to become new grid interconnection point in Lower Saxony
- Green electricity can flow from offshore wind farms to consumers
- EQOS Energie receives EUR 5 million commission
Over the next three years, EQOS Energie, one of the leading service providers for complex infrastructures, will be constructing an important node in the German energy grid with the new Cappeln-West substation. The client is TenneT, which dependably supplies 34 million households with electricity as Germany’s largest transmission network operator. The contract is worth EUR 5 million. EQOS Energie will handle the project on site with a team of up to ten fitters until the planned completion in summer 2025.
Background: The planned Conneforde-Cloppenburg-Merzen 380-kV line in the Cloppenburg area links TenneT to the 110-kV high-voltage grid via two new substations to be built. One of these is in Cappeln.
Herausforderung Energiewende
“Due to increasing feed-in of renewable energies in north-western Lower Saxony, a new grid interconnection point is required. The new line connects energy production in wind farms on the high seas with the German power transmission grid, brings green electricity to consumers and also increases supply security,” Uwe Trampnau, Managing Director for Energy Technology at EQOS Energie, explained the relevance of this construction project.
The European energy transformation poses new challenges for the power grids. For example, large amounts of sustainable wind energy need to be transported from the north of Germany to the densely populated centres of consumption in the south and west of the country. One prerequisite is the expansion of the maximum-voltage network. “The expansion of existing substations but also the construction of new plants is thus an indispensable piece of the puzzle on the way to achieving the EU’s energy and climate policy goals,” Trampnau said.
Mehr als 60.000 Meter Kabel werden verlegt
Wladimir Haak, head of the profit center Substations/HS Germany East at EQOS Energie, about the specifics of the project in Cappeln: “This involves the new construction of an eleven-bay 380-kV triple busbar and the partial new construction of the associated 110-kV triple busbar system across 16 fields. EQOS Energie performs the installation of the primary and secondary technology.”
The company also supplies the construction material, takes care of the electrical installation and assembles the equipment and components provided. Furthermore, it installs the earthing system, builds the cable system and manages the interfaces. More than 60,000 metres of cable will be laid in the process – from the operating rooms to the control cells and the transformers. “The tight timeframe for a construction project launched from a greenfield site is a particular difficulty here. Our employees are used to working that flexibly. Thanks to our excellent planning, which has been coordinated with TenneT, and the highly partner-like approach of all parties involved, we will be able to master this challenge without any problems,” the head of the profit center said.