In the beginning of this week, 90 representatives from the 33 partners have come to DTU Risø Campus from 11 countries to discuss progress in their joint efforts towards developing solutions for offshore meshed HVDC grid technologies.
Good presentations, lively conversations in the coffee breaks and a real sense of scientific and technological progress. 90 representatives from the 33 partners have come to DTU Risø Campus from 11 countries to discuss progress in their joint efforts towards developing solutions for offshore meshed HVDC grid technologies.
They are all partners in the Horizon2020 project PROMOTioN. One of the largest EU projects in the energy programme, PROMOTioN has a total budget of €42 mio. with €32 mio. coming from Horizon2020. From DTU Wind Energy, Professors Poul Ejnar Sørensen and Nicolaos Cutululis and PhD student Oscar Saborío Romano are among the researchers participating in the project.
According to project coordinator, Cornelis Plet from DNV GL, the project is delivering on its ambitions.
"From a technology point of view there are no major hurdles to apply offshore meshed HVDC grids. All the technology components have been thoroughly analysed, tested and demonstrated to be technically and economically feasible. The challenge now is twofold. First, who is going to implement and integrate the technological solutions? And second, how do we address hurdles related to the national regulatory requirements."
Poul Ejnar Sørensen agrees with Cornelis that the progress on technologies has been successful, and adds:
“An issue I would also highlight from DTU Wind Energy is our efforts to work with industry and research partners to transfer the project results into IEC and other standards as well as industrial best practices.”
Developing a good EU proposal is one thing. Translating it into a successful project handling a multimillion-euro budget and 33 partners is a completely different game, but according to Sebastian Menze from the German Offshore Wind Energy Foundation, the execution of PROMOTioN has worked well.
"The nice thing to see is that all the puzzle pieces from the proposal have really come together in the project execution", he says.
The project started in 2016 and will run until September 2020. Oscar Saborío-Romano is very positive about his engagement in the project.
“This is only the beginning of offshore Meshed grids. With the ambitious EU targets for offshore wind, this area will really take off in the coming years. For me personally, it has been inspiring to work with experts from the entire energy value chain. It contributes to bringing current, relevant challenges to the forefront of our research efforts. I chose to do my PhD at DTU Wind energy exactly to be able to join these kind of efforts".