Nexans has completed the manufacturing of the 220 kV offshore cable for the high voltage power export connection for 588 MW Beatrice offshore wind farm.
The cable has been loaded onto the Skagerrak cable laying vessel for the journey across the North Sea to the Moray Firth, where it will be installed and later trenched into the seabed by Nexans’ Capjet system.
Furthermore, the first of the two 400 kV onshore cable links and the high voltage accessories have been installed and tested on site, the company informed.
To export the energy from the wind farm to the grid, the two offshore cables take a route of 70 km along the seabed to a landfall point to the west of Portgordon on the Moray coast. A transition joint bay then connects them to the onshore cable system, which takes a 20 km route to Blackhillock substation. From there, the 400 kV onshore cables will transmit the electricity to the grid.
Nexans’ scope of work for the project includes design, manufacturing, testing, delivery, and installation of a total of 265 km of cables, including 145 km of 220 kV offshore cables, 115 km of 220 kV and 5 km of 400 kV onshore cables and the associated high voltage accessories.
“The Beatrice project perfectly illustrates our capacity to deliver turnkey grid connection solutions for offshore wind farms,” said Vincent Dessale, senior executive vice president for the Subsea and Land Systems business group at Nexans.
The Beatrice offshore wind farm project, scheduled to be fully operational by 2019, is a joint venture between SSE, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Red Rock Power Limited. The wind farm with the combined output of 84 turbines will be capable of generating enough electricity to power approximately 450,000 homes.
The offshore cables for the Beatrice offshore wind farm were produced in Halden, Norway and installed by Nexans Norway. The onshore cables were manufactured at Nexans Benelux facility in Charleroi, Belgium and installed by Nexans France. The associated high voltage accessories were delivered by Nexans Switzerland.