Denmark’s Electricity Connection to Europe Enters New Era

A new era for the electricity connection between Denmark and Europe has begun.

By Green Power Denmark | [email protected]

26 October 2016

That was the message during the inauguration of the COBRA-cable in Endrup, Denmark. The future electricity connection to the Netherlands will be linked to the Danish power grid in 2019.

With a capacity of 700 MW, the EU-funded connection is designated as a special project by the European Union in the realisation of the Energy Union. The connection will be improved by using a new technology that allows a connection from the cable to new offshore wind farms. The project consists of two subsurface cables each measuring 300 km and two land cables of 25 km each. The president of the Danish Energy Association, Kim Andersen emphasised the fact that Denmark is about to be electrically interconnected to a new country for the first time in 40 years.

-This is not only the beginning of a new era but a beginning of an entirely new relationship. And although there has been a small break along the way – as it sometimes happens in relationships - the past two years’ collaboration with TenneT has been very fruitful, said Kim Andersen and gave the floor to the Minister of Energy, Utilities and Climate before they went outside to cut the first sod together.

The Minister of Energy, Utilities and Climate, Lars Chr. Lilleholt emphasised that the COBRA-cable could be a way for Denmark to 'bypass' Germany, who has the only southbound electricity connection that is closed off 90% of the time.

-With the COBRA-cable Denmark will improve its chances of exchanging electricity with the rest of the European continent as we are currently very challenged by bottlenecks in the German power grid, said the Minister, Lars Chr. Lilleholt.

-Both Denmark and the Netherlands are small countries without high mountains, and we are dependent on the world around us. Therefore, it is only natural that Denmark and the Netherlands have a common ambition to develop and to build a functioning internal market for electricity trading - both on the European continent and in the North Sea , he adds.

The cable is provided by the Italian company Prysmian, while the Danish Energy Association and the Dutch sister organization TenneT have purchased the converter station that will transform the direct electricity current into an alternating current from the company Siemens.

Source: the Danish Energy Association