By Wang Rong, CCS Jiangsu Branch

On July 18, 2021, the offshore converter station of the Three Gorges Rudong HVDC Flexible Transmission.Project weighing 22,000 tons was  docked with the jacket   in millimeter-level precise under the lifting of a barge in  the Huangshayang waters of Rudong, Jiangsu, marking the successful installation of the world's largest and Asia's first offshore converter station built by China Three Gorges New Energy (Group) Co.,Ltd. On November 8, the first unit of Rudong Offshore Wind Power Project officially sent power to the Jiangsu power grid, marking the successful grid connection of the first batch of units of China's first flexible DC offshore wind power project.

Picture: Installation of the Offshore Converter Station Completed

The Three Gorges Rudong Converter Station Offshore Wind Power Project is located in Huangshayang waters in the east of Rudong County, about 70 kilometers offshore.  It mainly serves three offshore wind farms-Rudong H6,Rudong H8 and Rudong H10  (With a  total installed capacity of 1100MW for Rudong H6 Offshore Wind Power Project of Three Gorges Renewables,Rudong H10 Offshore Wind Power Project of Three Gorges Renewables,and China General Nuclear Power Group Rudong H8 Offshore Wind Power Project).The upper block of the  converter station is a six-story building, with a plan size of about 86 meters × 92 meters,equivalent to a football field, a height of about 53 meters,similar to a ten-floor building,and a weight amounting to 8 convectional step-up stations.After completion, it will become the first offshore converter station in Asia and the largest in the world so far.With a transmission distance of about 100 kilometers, he DC submarine cable of the converter station is the longest in length and the highest in voltage level in China at present. After being put into operation as a whole, the project can satisfy the annual electricity consumption of about 1.36 million households, contributing a lot to the "3060" dual carbon goal.

China Classification Society (CCS), as a third party providing verification and survey services, participated in the entire process of the project, including design, construction, transportation,installation and commissioning, to assure the safety of the project with professional services.

During the construction and offshore installation of the Three Gorges Rudong Converter Station,the on-site surveyors actively cooperated with the shipyard, and as a result of their elaborate preparation, the jobs were completed in time in the situation of COVID-19 pandemic and the rainy season. At the same time, as the surveyor of the project, CCS also communicated with the builder in a timely manner on the possible risk points in the early stage of the project, and invited experts in the CCS system to give training about the technical difficulties and key points of the offshore converter station for the project constructor and installer, so as to avoid the unnecessary problems during construction, thus ensuring the smooth progress of the project.