Researchers at The University of Manchester in northwest England are heading a European consortium responsible for the three-phased DCDYNAMIC project.

The goal of the four-year, £5.5 million ($6.71 million) project is to design cable technology that will help facilitate the transfer of about 17% of total electricity from offshore wind by 2050 to a European electricity grid. 

Horizon Europe and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) are funding the development. It is a collaboration between the Manchester team and other academics and industry representatives from ETH Zurich, the University of Vienna, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, NKT Cable Group, Shell Research, S&B Insurance Advisors, and Arttic Innovation.

In its first phase, DCDYNAMIC (Accelerating DC Dynamic Export Cable Technology for a Sustainable European Electricity Grid) will investigate how electrical, mechanical and thermal stresses impact DC cables.

The next phase will assess how to create conditions for reliable testing, and it will be followed by a third phase for construction of a 320-kV HVDC cable prototype, tested at scale using simulated conditions created by the project teams. 

Dr. Tony Chen, Reader in High Voltage Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, will lead the research effort, supported by Ian Kinloch, Professor of Materials Science and Chief Scientist at the Henry Royce Institute (the UK’s national institute for material innovation), and Dr. Mark Bissett, Reader in Nanomaterials at the National Graphene Institute.