The Nordlink interconnector, a 623-km long high-voltage direct current electricity interconnection that links the German and Norwegian power markets is now live.

This is according to a press release from Hitachi ABB Power Grids, the company that provided the HVDC technology for the project.

NordLink is the world’s first HVDC Light® bi-pole installation to perform at a level of 525kV and 1,400MW, nearly doubling the power transmission capacity compared with earlier systems and improving overall reliability and availability in the grid.

Currently the longest and most powerful interconnection in Europe, NordLink makes use of HVDC Light technology to expand the stable, large-scale integration and exchange of renewable power in Europe.

In the future, the link will be capable of delivering enough power to supply approximately 3.6 million homes in Germany.

According to Niklas Persson, managing director of Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ Grid Integration business unit: “Together, with the NordLink owners, Statnett and TenneT, Hitachi ABB Power Grids is contributing to the development of an integrated European energy market, which is powered by renewable energy and underpinned by an electricity backbone that supports sustainable society.”

“Our new interconnector, NordLink, is now entering trial operations and is ready to exchange renewable power between our two countries. NordLink will help us to achieve our climate goals and create value on both the Norwegian and the German side of the link,” said executive vice president, Gunnar G. Løvås at Statnett.

“The connection provides the German power grid reliable access to hydropower resources in Norway, and Norway access to Germany’s substantial base of renewable energy, particularly wind and solar energy resources. The link will help to strengthen the security of supply in a European power grid in which electricity is increasingly generated from sustainable energy,” said chief operations Officer, Tim Meyerjürgens at TenneT.

Hitachi ABB Power Grids designed, engineered and supplied the two converter stations – located in Southern Norway and Northern Germany – at the heart of the NordLink project. The converter stations have been delivered to a consortium of transmission system operators, Statnett and TenneT, and the state-owned German development bank, KfW.

This complex project involving multiple locations, countries and customers, was executed safely and on time. Trial operations have started this month and completion is planned for early 2021.