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High Voltage Direct Current to be Used for Wind Farm Adapted from Information by Vattenfall Vattenfall, a Swedish energy group, is developing a wind farm called Norfolk Vanguard off the east Norfolk coast in England, UK. Once the wind farm comes online in the mid-2020s, Norfolk Vanguard’s 1.8 gigawatts (GWs) of generating capacity will produce enough fossil-free power every year to meet the equivalent annual electricity demand of 1.3 million UK households, almost 5% of demand. The company made the decision to deploy High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable technology to connect Norfolk Vanguard and its sister wind farm project Norfolk Boreas to the UK’s National Grid. The wind farm develop- er believes HVDC will be cost compet- itive with the more commonly used High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) technology in the early 2020s, while being bet- ter for local people and the environment where onshore infrastructure is located. The adoption of HVDC transmission connections will avoid the need for cable relay stations. It also means a much narrower cable corridor throughout the project, whether offshore or onshore. Vattenfall was originally going to use a nearly 330-foot wide corridor in line with HVAC requirements, but HVDCwill reduce it to a 150-foot wide onshore cable corridor running from landfall to a substation nearly 40 miles away. This will allow Vattenfall to avoid sensitive sites, including those with historical heritage status. At landfall where power transmission cables from the offshore wind farm come ashore, long-range horizontal directional drilling (HDD) will be used to avoid impact on the cliffs and will not require works on the beach. Due to additional long-range HDD, Vattenfall will avoid impact on all county wildlife sites and a number of important local amenity and tourism sites by adding further sections of trenchless crossing. The HVDC Norfolk Vanguard sub- station will be quieter than the HVAC alternative by using fewer low-frequency noise-emitting components and acoustic insulation. The footprint of the HVDC project substation will not change; how- ever, the structure will be enclosed in taller buildings. Vattenfall will work with local residents and groups to minimize the substation’s impact. Ruari Lean, Vattenfal l ’s project manager of the Norfolk Vanguard off- shore wind farm development said, “We have listened very carefully to what local people told us about our plans for Norfolk Vanguard. In combination with our strategic review of transmission technology, the concerns raised by local people have influenced our decision to adopt pioneering HVDC infrastructure for Norfolk Vanguard. By backing HVDC technology, we will minimize the impact on people and the environment whilst keeping the cost of electricity down for the British consumer.” 19 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® JUNE 2018 New & Used Bits, HDD Bits & Tools, Drag Bits & Wings, Bolt-On Drag Bits, Reverse Circulation Tools, Hole Openers, Claw Bits, Stabilizers, Subs, Custom Tooling & Welding, Hammer Bits, Drill Collars, Pipe Wipers, and Drill Pipe. Office: (661) 834-4348 Rod Henderson / Eran Henderson 661-201-6259 • 661-330-0790 sales@bitcobits.com www.bitcoinc.us Open the Doorway to all the Event Photos during the International Foundations Congress and Equipment Expo 2018. To see all the photos from this event, go to www.worldwidedrillingresource.com or click here. Feel free to download at will and print the photo(s) of your choice. Compliments of WorldWide Drilling Resource ® . Photos are copyrighted and released for personal use only - no commercial use permitted . DIR