North China's First Offshore Wind Farm Owned by CTG Connects to Grid

North China's first offshore wind farm started commercial operation on January 19 after the country’s first low-temperature 6.45 mw large-capacity wind turbine was connected to the grid.

Zhuanghe offshore wind farm is funded and built by China Three Gorges New Energy Co., Ltd, the renewable arm of China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG).

Construction on the main offshore work started on October 25, 2017. It took the project team nearly 14 months to lay the world's longest 220kV three-core single-connection submarine cable, install the first cold sea offshore step-up substation in China, and connect the first 3.3mw unit to the grid by the end of 2018, overcoming numerous challenges such as sudden bad weather, complex submarine bottom topography, varying water depths, and icing problems.

The successful connection of China's first low-temperature 6.45mw large-capacity wind turbine marks the official large-scale commercial operation of the Zhuanghe offshore wind farm, a project that would help accumulate valuable experience for developing new technologies for future offshore wind farms in the frigid northern China.

The 5-billion yuan offshore wind farm, located in the northern Yellow Sea of China, has a total installed capacity of 300,000kw, covering an area of about 47.7 square kilometers.

The center of the wind farm is about 22 kilometers off the coast and the whole farm has average water depths of more than 20 meters. Upon completion, the project will be able to generate 714 million kWh of electricity per year, enough to power 450,000 households for one year.

The electricity generated by Zhuanghe wind farm saves about 230,000 metric tons of standard coal equivalent every year, cuts emission of 640,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 5,700 tons of sulfur dioxide and reduces deforestation by about 250,000 cubic meters, generating tremendous economic, social and ecological values.

Zhuanghe, a town under the city of Dalian in Liaoning, is the first smart energy city and the first pilot micro-grid town (island) in China. The commissioning of the offshore wind farm project is an integral part of the efforts to promote the pilot micro-grid city initiative.

The project is of great significance as it translates abundant offshore wind power resources in Northeast China into the economic and competitive advantages to power local development, helping alleviate energy and environmental strains, improving energy structure and promoting industrial structure upgrading and transformation in the region.