The Hybrid STATCOM technology has been deployed over three separate substations – Bolney, Ninfield and Richborough – along the transmission network in southeast England. With less than 90 millisecond response time, three units delivers dynamic reactive power range from -300 Mvar inductive (absorbing vars) to +675 Mvar capacitive (injecting vars) with availability of 95%, as per customer requirement.
Stabilizing Nemo Link
The DRC compensators support help National Grid enhance regional voltage stability for the UK-Belgium HVDC interconnection, also known as Nemo Link. The Interconnector commenced operation at the end of January 2019 and is capable of delivering more than 1 GW of bi-directional power between the two countries.
The UK has been using Nemo Link to import cheap electricity from the Continent. Over 5,889 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity were imported to the UK in the first year of operations and nearly 176 GWh to Belgium through a "near real-time" power trading system.
Near ‘real time’ power trading
Electricity traders can choose from a variety of products to move electricity back and forth between the two countries across the English Channel. Capacity can be bought closer to real time through hourly nomination gates. This “closer to real time service” enables traders to respond quickly to sudden changes in supply and demand, thereby reducing the potential for spikes in power prices.
“By enabling the market to react immediately to rapid changes in supply and demand, Nemo helps to better balance an energy system that is more reliant on intermittent wind and solar energy;” explained Jon Butterworth, President of National Grid Ventures. “In the coming years, interconnectors like Nemo will play an increasingly important role,” he forecast with reference to the TSO’s aim to “share renewable energy resources across borders” to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
For National Grid, Nemo Link is the third interconnector to Europe next to the IFA link to France and BritNed to the Netherlands. Three further projects are under construction to France, notably IFA2 due operational 2020, the North Sea Link to Norway due operational 2021, and the Viking Link to Denmark due onstream in 2023.
By 2030, some 90% of electricity imported via National Grid’s interconnectors is meant to originate be from zero carbon sources.