Anbaric has filed a request with ISO-New England for a 1,200MW HVDC interconnection to a substation in Brayton Point, Massachusetts, that would collect energy produced by offshore wind projects.
According to Anbaric, the proposal will offer expanded wind generation procurements off Massachusetts resulting from the recent federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) auctions of offshore wind lease areas.
“The 2018 BOEM lease auction added new offshore wind developers able to supply power to New England. Their lease areas are farther from shore than the three areas initially awarded by BOEM, and HVDC is the most efficient technology to access all of the lease areas and move energy to shore with the smallest environmental footprint,” said Stephen Conant , Partner at Anbaric.
The interconnection request establishes a critical onshore landing point as Anbaric advances its Massachusetts OceanGrid project, designed to streamline the access of offshore wind projects to the onshore grid, the U.S. offshore transmission operator said.
The company believes the robust transmission infrastructure will help Massachusetts realize its offshore wind goals while protecting the public from unnecessary costs and reducing environmental impacts.
Conant stated that by using HVDC technology, Anbaric can connect 1,200MW of wind via a single cable bundle, while to move the same amount of energy with AC would require three or four separate cables, each in its own corridor.
“This reduction in cable size is essential to realizing Massachusetts’ offshore wind goals because Brayton Point is one of the most robust points on the grid where large volumes of offshore wind can connect, but there are very few potential cable routes to Brayton Point because of environmental and other constraints in Narragansett and Mount Hope bays. As Massachusetts and other New England states weigh harnessing more offshore wind energy, an OceanGrid with fewer high capacity cables that optimize connections to shore is the way to go,” said Conant.
In February last year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted Anbaric the rights to solicit customers and sell transmission rights to a 2GW–2.4GW offshore wind transmission system in southern New England.
The company also received approval to carry out a bidding process for offshore wind developers to connect projects to an offshore grid.