Under the pressures of the climate crisis, electrification of the world is advancing in great strides. In a study, the renowned “World Energy Council” demonstrated that demand for electric power is set to double by 2060. As part of the efforts needed to satisfy this huge demand for energy, renewable energies play a central role in this development.

The European Union, for example, aims to increase the share of climate-friendly energy to at least 32 percent by 2030. Meeting these targets will not only demand a huge increase in production capacities. In order to transport the electricity from new wind farms in the Baltic Sea, from hydroelectric power plants in Norway, or from solar plants in Morocco to urban centers, huge investments in new power lines will also be essential. The challenge is to connect up grids by bridging continents and seas.

Generally speaking, the reactors are the counterpiece to the device under test, which in this case is the cable. As the test is performed based on the series resonance principle, the following relationship applies: the longer the cable, the larger the reactor. After all, it needs to be able to supply significantly more power for longer lengths of cable. Enrico Bilinski, who heads up the Transformers Team at HIGHVOLT as an engineer, enthuses about what makes the new XXL reactors so special: “They offer four times as much power, but are only twice the size of the existing reactors.”

The dimensions and weight are approximately the same as a high-voltage cable drum (reactor: width 4.5 m, height 3.5 m, length 4 m, weight 50 tons). As a result, the number of journeys required to transport the reactors on the existing access routes to the cable transition and terminal stations is reduced. And because they are connected directly to the stations, no additional terminal connections are required, which saves a great deal of time and money. The reactors are connected on both sides of the cable section, as a result of which only four reactors need to be transported for the next section. With a fourfold increase in electrical power to 120 megavolt amperes, savings of around 75 percent of the set-up area can be achieved in comparison to standard mobile systems (1 trailer WRVT 30 MVA).

In order to boost the test power even further, the engineers at HIGHVOLT have come up with a clever trick and dimensioned the frequency range from 10 to 300 Hz. “With the same test voltage, this allows us to test longer cables,” explains Bilinski. And the new system still has headroom for more: Up to 20 reactors can be combined with each other. “In theory, we can test cables that are up to 200 km long with this system.”