ABB is supplying Statoil with high-voltage direct current (HVDC) equipment to the transmission link that will supply the Johan Sverdrup offshore oilfield development with electricity from the onshore grid. Supplying power from shore to run the oil platforms, instead of using local generation, considerably lowers CO2 emissions.
ABB will design, engineer, supply and commission the equipment for two ±80 kilovolt 100 MW HVDC converter stations, using Voltage-Sourced Converters (VSC) technology, by ABB called HVDC Light.
The project includes installation, supervision and site services. One station will be situated on-shore at Haugsneset, near the Statoil Kårstø plant on the Norwegian west coast, the other on the platform situated 155 km west of the Norwegian coastline.
The Johan Sverdrup installation located at Utsira Height is expected to become the largest producing oil field in the North Sea by the time it reaches its peak. In the first phase of the development plan four platforms will be built and production startup is expected to take place in 2019. The HVDC link is planned to go into service in 2018.
ABB’s HVDC Light leads the way in VSC technology and has won all four HVDC power-from-shore orders ordered in the world so far: Statoil’s Troll A 1&2, delivered in 2005, BP’s Valhall, delivered in 2011, Troll A 3&4, currently under delivery and now Johan Sverdrup. All are located in the North Sea.
ABB pioneered HVDC transmission technology 60 years ago and has been awarded about 100 HVDC projects, representing a total installed capacity of more than 120,000 megawatts and accounting for about half of the global installed base. In the 1990’s ABB developed the HVDC technology further using voltage-sourced converters and named it HVDC Light.
VSC-HVDC links are increasingly being deployed across a range of applications such as the connection of remote renewables, cross-border interconnections, power-from-shore feeding offshore oil and gas platforms, and city center in-feeds where space is a constraint.