NorGer was one of two planned electricity cables between

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The other proposed project was

NordLink NordLink is a subsea 1,400 megawatt (MW) High-voltage direct current, HVDC power cable between Norway and Germany, opened in May 2021. The long line operates at a voltage of 500 Kilovolt, kV Direct current, DC. It consists of 54 ki ...

, which Statnett decided to proceed with in 2015, and NorGer was cancelled.

Description

NorGer interconnector will start in

Tonstad Tonstad is the administrative centre of the municipality of Sirdal in Agder county, Norway. The village is located at the northern end of the lake Sirdalsvatnet in the Sirdalen valley. The village has a population (2015) of 874, giving the villa ...

in Norway. From Tonstad overhead powerline runs to the

Flekkefjord Flekkefjord () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Lister Region, Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the ...

area. From Flekkefjord a long

high voltage direct current A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating current (AC) transmission systems. Most HVDC links use voltages betwe ...

submarine cable will run through the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

to Mooriem in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

. It will be laid on the Norwegian, German and Danish

Continental Shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

. The precise cable route is decided from a thorough mapping of the sea-bed along the prospective cable route. The sea route is consulted by Offshore Marine Management. NorGer will have a transmission capacity of 1,400 MW and an operating voltage of 450–500 kV. The price per

kWh A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a common b ...

could rise by 0.8 øre in Norway. The sea cable is planned as a bipolar system with earthing through the return cable. This way, the disadvantages of a ground-return electrode with earthing in the sea, such as production of chlorine compounds and metal corrosion, are avoided. Anticipated life span of the cable would be about 40 years. Since the power supply in both Germany and Norway is based on

alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current that periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time, in contrast to direct current (DC), which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in w ...

, converter stations must be built in both countries.

Project company

The project is developed by NorGer KS, a company that is owned by the Norwegian

transmission system operator File:Electricity grid simple- North America.svg, 380px, Simplified diagram of AC electricity grid from generation stations to consumers in North America rect 2 243 235 438 Power station rect 276 317 412 556 Transformer rect 412 121 781 400 Elect ...

Statnett Statnett is a Norwegian state-owned enterprise responsible for owning, operating and constructing the stem power grid in Norway. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway. Statnett also owns 30% of the Nord Pool Spot along with other No ...

, energy utilities

Agder Energi Agder is a county () and traditional region in the southern part of Norway and is coextensive with the Southern Norway region. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder counties were merged. Since the ...

and Lyse Produksjon, and the Swiss company

Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft Laufenburg Axpo Holding AG, headquartered in Baden, Switzerland, Baden in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau, and its subsidiaries constitute the energy company Axpo. Axpo Holding AG was established in 2001, is 100-percent publicly owned and origi ...

. NorGer is registered in Norway. Statnett owns 50% of the projects while all other partners own stake of 16.67% each.

Environment

NorGer will use the best available technology to limit the cable’s impact on the environment. Previous investigations show that underwater HVDC cables have no known impact on sea life.Andrulewics, E.D., D. Napierska, Z. Otremba, 2003: The environmental effects of the installation and functioning of the submarine SwePol link HVDC transmission line: a case study of the Polish Marine Area of the Baltic Sea. J. Sea Res. 49:337–345.

Climate gain

In periods of overproduction, German wind power can be transported to Norway while water in Norwegian reservoirs can be stored for later use. With limited access to pumped hydro power stations in Southern Germany it is difficult to use the increase in wind power in the North German coastal areas. The cable connection will also be important for Norway’s plans to use more wind power. Power supply from wind power can vary from hour to hour according to wind strength and access to reserve power is needed to even out the variations. Hydroelectric power, with its unique regulatory capacity is a cheap and reliable balancing power source for wind power.

References

External links