wiredinUSA September 2015

Cable landing

Only connect

A $300 million transatlantic cable, known as AEConnect, has come ashore at Ross Strand in Killala, County Mayo. The work, carried out by Aqua Comms Transatlantic Cable, was marked with a committee of local councillors and officials, including Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Theopticfiber cablewill stretch fromShirley, New York, a distance of 5,400km, and is expected to generate a major economic boost for the west of Ireland. The cable will have the capacity to handle up to a third of the world’s telephone calls and cover the entire Internet traffic of Europe and the US. The system is expected to be live in early 2016 and will enable 53.8 millisecond transfer speeds across the Atlantic. Local councillor Jarlath Munnelly said the project could “transform” Killala and the north Mayo region. “This is an exciting project… It has the potential to transform North Mayo, not just Killala, by enhancing the telecommunications infrastructure in the area, and putting Ireland and Mayo into the center of a global network.”

ABB has commissioned the 800MW DolWin1 HVDC offshore wind grid link in the German North Sea for the Dutch-German transmission system operator TenneT. The DolWin1gridconnection ispartofGermany's Energiewende program, which aims to generate in excess of 6.5GW offshore wind capacity by 2020 and 15GW by 2030. The DolWin1 connects the DolWin alpha converter station to the landfall point in Hilgenriedersiel, via a 75km subsea cable, and then to the converter station in Dörpen-West (Heede), in Lower Saxony, Germany, as an undergroundcable system. At present, the 215MW Borkum West II and 312MW Borkum Riffgrund I offshore wind farms are connected to the DolWin alpha through submarine cables. ABB provided its HVDC Light voltage source converter for the project, and also installed the converter stations, and submarine and underground cable systems. With the commissioning of the DolWin1, transmission capacity of offshore grid connections in the North Sea reaches around 4,300MW; a significant contribution to the government's planned 6,500MW by 2020.

wiredInUSA - September 2015

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