The 42km export cable, which will take power from the wind farm located off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness in Ireland to the mainland National Grid, was simultaneously laid and buried in one uninterrupted operation from the shore to the offshore substation by Visser Smit.
Vattenfall believes this is a UK first for a cable of that length and size.
Once the cables linking wind turbines to the substations are laid, engineers will work to enable the first turbines to receive power from the National Grid in a process known as ‘energisation’.
Energisation allows engineers to test internal systems in the wind turbines before being able to safely generate first power and export to the Grid.
“Vattenfall’s Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm is on schedule to deliver power to the grid later this year and the completion of the 42km export cable is a crucial landmark for the scheme because without it we could never deliver green power to people’s homes,” said Project Manager Matthew Green.
“The export cable was installed intact, without any joints and laid from shore to substation in one uninterrupted operation,” he continued. “This is probably a UK first for an export cable of this length and size connecting from an offshore wind farm and I think it demonstrates the expertise of the skilled engineers we have working on this project.”
“As we continue to deploy wind turbines on site we will carry on with laying cables between the turbines and the offshore substation,” he added.
The massive 42km long export cable, made of copper and heavily armoured with steel wires and polyethylene to protect the copper, weighs 3,500 tons – about the same as eight fully loaded jumbo jets.
On completion the Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm will comprise 30 REpower 5M wind turbines with the capacity of 150 MW and expected to produce around 500 gigawatt hours of electricity every year.
This is sufficient to supply the equivalent electricity demand of more than 100,000 UK homes per year with clean power. The turbines will cover an area of 8.7km2 and construction commenced in May 2010 with first turbines deployed in March 2011.
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