BalWin1 & BalWin2

GRID CONNECTIONS IN SOUTHERN LOWER SAXONY AND NORTHERN NORTH RHINE-WESTPHALIA

BalWin1 and BalWin2 are two of the connection systems that will feed North Sea wind power into our transmission network. For both systems, we will be laying cables out on the high seas, in the mudflats near Norderney and on the mainland between Hilgenriedersiel on the coast and the respective grid interconnection points, for the most part parallel to one another. The grid interconnection point for BalWin1 will be in Wehrendorf in the southern Osnabrück region. The grid interconnection point of BalWin2 will be in Westerkappeln in northern North Rhine-Westphalia.
As the transmission network in the north is already very heavily utilised due to the large number of wind farms located on and off the coast, building a connection further south can reduce intervention in grid operation, associated costs and the extent of grid expansion required locally.

COMMISSIONING IN 2030 AND 2031

The two offshore grid integration systems planned will be installed parallel to one another on land and for the most part at sea, too. The BalWin1 connection is around 360 kilometres long, around 155 kilometres of which will be under the sea. BalWin2 has a total route length of around 380 kilometres, of which around 165 kilometres are offshore. For the land section, both BalWin1 and BalWin2 are planned to be installed as underground direct current cables. They will each be able to transmit a capacity of 2,000 megawatts, enabling offshore wind energy to meet the needs of around four million people.