FRANKFURT: * German power network company Amprion is seeking permission from the country's Bundesnetzagentur (BnetzA) energy regulator to install a high-voltage line that would send offshore wind power from the North Sea further inland, BnetzA said on Thursday.
* The 300-km line, called A-Nord, would run from the port of Emden to Osterrath, representing a missing link in the energy transition underway in Germany towards reliance on renewable sources and away from fossil fuels
* The project would bring two gigawatts of electric capacity, equivalent to more than one big nuclear reactor, into the populous industrial state of North-Rhine Westphalia
* It would end near Duesseldorf, where it would hook up with another planned line, Ultranet
* Amprion, partly held by utility RWE, envisages Ultranet to run through to Philippsburg in Baden Wuerttemberg, where a nuclear reactor operated by EnBW will close by the end of next year
* The cables will use direct current (DC) electricity transmission to speed up point-to-point delivery, differing from alternating current (AC) lines common in Europe
* BnetzA said it planned to publish the plans in May, coinciding with the opening of a public consultation
* Two more such north-south lines, SuedOstLink and SuedLink, are also being planned and may be completed around 2025