Hitachi Energy has won an order from Ørsted to provide two high-voltage direct current (HVDC) systems to connect the Hornsea 3 wind farm, located more than 120km off the east coast, to the onshore network.
Hornsea 3’s total capacity of 2.85GW will comprise more than 200 wind turbines across almost 700 square kilometres – currently the single largest offshore wind farm in the world.

“The Ørsted vision is a world that runs entirely on green energy and the Hornsea projects are a significant step towards this goal in the UK,” said Patrick Harnett, Vice President Programme UK at Ørsted.

Hitachi Energy previously provided connections for Ørsted’s Hornsea 1 and Hornsea 2 plants, but Hornsea 3 will be the first phase to use HVDC application in the Hornsea cluster. At Hornsea 3 it is supplying four HVDC converter stations, which convert AC power to DC for transmission in the subsea cables, then reconvert it to AC for integration into the onshore grid. Two of the converter stations will be installed on offshore platforms and two at mainland grid connections Aibel will deliver two HVDC offshore converter platforms.