The Kriegers Flak Combined Grid Solution interconnector between Denmark and Germany, which links the Kriegers Flak and Baltic offshore wind farms and enables cross-border electricity trading, was formally inaugurated in November 2021, marking the start of full commercial operation of the international offshore power grid.
According to the European Commission’s EEPR reporting, all offshore and onshore installation work for the Kriegers Flak Combined Grid Solution, including the cable installation, was completed under an extended Grant Agreement, with the project marked as completed by 31 December 2020.
Hitachi Energy’s back-to-back HVDC converter station for the Kriegers Flak Combined Grid Solution, located at Bentwisch in northern Germany and connecting the Danish Kriegers Flak offshore grid to the German network, was commissioned in 2019, enabling controlled power exchange between the two asynchronous AC systems and integration of the associated offshore wind farms.
VBMS was awarded a contract by NKT Cables to install approximately 50 km of 150 kV AC high-voltage submarine cables for the Kriegers Flak Combined Grid Solution interconnector linking the Kriegers Flak offshore wind farm in Denmark with the Baltic 2 offshore wind farm in Germany, owned by Energinet.dk and 50Hertz. The offshore cable installation work, forming the electrical connection between Zealand and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, was scheduled to be carried out in the second quarter of 2018.
On 15 December 2016, Energinet.dk and 50Hertz awarded NKT Cables a contract for the Kriegers Flak Combined Grid Solution to manufacture, deliver and lay the submarine cables connecting the Danish Kriegers Flak offshore wind farm with the German offshore wind farm Baltic 2 in the Baltic Sea. The two AC submarine cables supplied under this contract will enable the transfer of around 400 MW of energy between the Danish island of Zealand and the German federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Licence: Inclusion of Kriegers Flak CGS as Project 36 (PCI 4.1) in TYNDP 2016
The Kriegers Flak Combined Grid Solution, an AC offshore connection between Denmark and Germany with back-to-back stations in Germany that also connects the Kriegers Flak, Baltic 1 and Baltic 2 offshore wind farms, was included in ENTSO-E’s 2016 Ten-Year Network Development Plan as Project 36 (PCI 4.1), classified as a mid-term interconnection project between Denmark-East and Germany.
Energinet.dk, together with Fugro and subcontractor Boskalis, completed an unexploded ordnance (UXO) survey in October 2016 along the planned cable routes for the Kriegers Flak Grid Connection, which will form part of the Kriegers Flak Combined Grid Solution interconnector between Denmark and Germany. The campaign identified and investigated multiple objects, with five UXO items neutralised by the Royal Danish Navy, reducing ordnance risk along the approximately 25‑kilometre HVAC cable route between the offshore substations and helping to make the grid connection and interconnector installation area ALARP compliant.
The project partners 50Hertz Transmission, Energinet.dk, and Svenska Kraftnät completed a joint feasibility study assessing different technical concepts for connecting the offshore wind farms Kriegers Flak 1 (Germany), Kriegers Flak 2 (Sweden), and Kriegers Flak 3 (Denmark) while also providing cross‑border transmission capacity. The study compared a classical national radial AC connection with combined grid solutions using DC or hybrid technology that would act both as wind farm grid connections and an interconnector between Denmark, Germany, and Sweden, and it selected a Combined Grid Solution (CGS) variant as the preferred concept for further development of the Kriegers Flak interconnection.
Transmission system operators 50Hertz Transmission, Energinet.dk and Svenska Kraftnät established a project partnership and launched a joint feasibility study to investigate ways of combining the grid connection of the offshore wind farms Kriegers Flak 1 (Germany), Kriegers Flak 2 (Sweden) and Kriegers Flak 3 (Denmark) with cross‑border transmission capacity across the Baltic Sea. This collaboration, referred to as the Combined Grid Solution (CGS), examined AC, DC and hybrid concepts in which the offshore wind farm connections would also function as an interconnector between Denmark, Germany and Sweden.
Svenska Kraftnät informed its partners on 15 January 2010 that it would abstain from participating in the combined development of the Kriegers Flak Combined Grid Solution at that time, as offshore wind farms were not expected to be built in the Swedish part of Kriegers Flak in the foreseeable future. While stepping back from joint development, Svenska Kraftnät stated it would provide technical support for the continued Danish‑German part of the combined structure, enabling Energinet.dk and 50Hertz Transmission to proceed with the EU‑supported interconnector concept.
| Germany | Denmark | Denmark | Denmark | Denmark | Denmark | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landfall | — | Rødvig (Stevns), Zealand, Denmark | N/A | N/A | N/A | — |
| Grid Connection | Bentwisch (onshore converter/substation, Bentwisch, Mecklenburg‑Western Pomerania, Germany) | Ishøj / Bjæverskov (onshore substation(s), Zealand, Denmark) | — | — | — | — |
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