Offshore Update 11th July 2018

HAPPENING ELSEWHERE

KRIEGERS FLAK (DK37) The two 25km cables between the Baltic 2 and Kriegers Flak wind farms have been laid and pulled into the platforms. 5th Jul 2018

ARKONA (DE46) The first of the 60 SWT-6.0-154 wind turbines was installed by SEA CHALLENGER. 7th Jul 2018

HKZ I&II (NL0D) Petrofac won the EPCI contract to construct the 700MW HKZ alpha offshore transformer station, due to be completed in 2021. 10th Jul 2018

BEATRICE (UK53) Seaway Heavy Lifting has installed the last of 86 jacket foundations. 11th Jul 2018

HORNSEA TWO (UK1U) Ørsted has contracted NKT to supply 190km of 220kV export cabling, EEW has been appointed to produce 165 monopile founda-

tions and ABB landed a contract to provide switchgear, transformers, reactors and harmonic filters.

11th Jul 2018

HKN I&II (NL0F) The tender for the subsea cables and platforms for the Hollandse Kust (noord) project will start towards the end of 2018. Q4 2018

(London Array Source: Orsted) Click on a project name, turbine, vessel or map to find out more on the 4C Offshore website

LOOKING FORWARD

TURBINES NEEDING TLC

Siemens Gamesa (SGRE) has commenced the nine month

blade repair campaign at the 630MW London Array off-

shore wind farm. The vessel MPI Adventure accompanied

by Voss Sampson will be carrying out emergency blade

repairs on 140 turbines over the next nine months. Work

is estimated to take approximately two days per turbine

and will be completed on the jack-up deck. The repairs

and upgrades are likely to include fitting rubber edgings,

exchanging lightning receptors, changing DinoTails and

spot repairs. This is one of three major blade campaigns

SGRE is facing due to leading edge erosion on the SWT-3.6

-210 turbines and similar repairs are also required at the

Anholt and West of Duddon Sands projects. But SGRE is

not the only one, NordzeeWind awarded Alpha Offshore

Service A/S a blade repair contract for the Vestas 3MW

V90 turbines at the Egmond aan Zee wind farm. Works

include tip replacement, laminate repairs, lightning dam-

age and leading edge protection system upgrades. A total

of 80 blades will undergo repairs over the summer.

KINCARDINE KICKS OFF CONSTRUCTION

Preparations for installation of the first floating wind tur-

bine for the 50MW Kincardine project are progressing.

The ‘float-off’ of the WindFloat foundation is taking place

today in Edinburgh. According to sources, the Offshore

Heavy Transport vessel Albatross will tug the structure to

Dundee for final assembly of the V80-2MW turbine. All

marine operations are being carried out by Bourbon who

are due commence installation of the moorings imminent-

ly followed by ‘hook-up’ in August. Since Consent was

granted in early 2017 the project has suffered a number of

delays and the decision to install the 2MW turbine is cru-

cial for the developer to meet the Renewables Obligation

Certificate deadline this autumn. According to the con-

struction plan the turbine will initially be installed for up to

3 years with possible extension if the foundation is recerti-

fied. Installation of the following six 8.4MW turbines will

take place over two campaigns in 2019 and 2020.

INSTALLATION SUCCESS IN CHINA

The final turbine has been installed at the 79.4MW Fuqing

Xinghua Bay Phase I wind farm. Located in the Taiwan

Strait, the area has a complex seabed, a large tidal range

of 4.28m and is prone to typhoons and monsoons. The

project features 14 turbines from multiple manufactures

including 3x Haliade 150-6MW, 2x Goldwind 6.7MW, 2x H

151-5MW, 2x TZ5000 (Taiyuan Heavy Industry), 1x 5MW

(Dongfang), and 2x 6MW Shanghai Electric. The final two

turbines are designed by Mingyang Wind Power and

dubbed the world’s largest typhoon resistant turbines.

Typhoons represent a specific challenge facing offshore

wind in South East Asia. Typhoons bring extreme wind

speeds, rapid changes in wind direction and high storm

surges. MHI Vestas recently confirmed that its 9MW tur-

bine platform will be ready to take on typhoons in Taiwan

by 2020. The Fuqing Xinghua Bay prototype project will

provide important data for future projects.

RAMPION READIES FOR CABLE REPLACEMENT

The end is nearly in sight as E.ON oversees installation of

the second replacement export cable at the Rampion

offshore wind farm. The original export cables were sup-

plied by LS Cable Korea and installed by VBMS in 2016 but

the developer has endured multiple set backs with the

transmission system during construction. The eastern

export cable had to be replaced earlier this year following

recurring issues associated with the fibre optic core. Simi-

lar damage was also discovered in the western export

cable which according to E.ON would ‘compromise its

performance.’ Operations to excavate the cable trench for

the new western cable are underway by Capall Mara and

C59 Emotion. Cable lay vessel Atalanti is expected to arrive

onsite to start cable installation on 25th July. According to

E.ON the project will be fully operational by the end of

2018 and Ofgem stated that the Invitation to Tender stage

for the Rampion OFTO is due to take place this year.

MORAY WEST APPLIES FOR CONSENT

Moray Offshore Windfarm (West) Ltd. (MOWL) has ap-

plied to Scottish Ministers for consent to develop an off-

shore wind farm in the Moray Firth. The Moray West site

covers an area of 225km2, 22.5km from the Caithness

coastline. According to the consent documents the pro-

ject will feature up to 85 turbines, with a max rotor diame-

ter of 250m and max tip height of 285m. A range of foun-

dations are being considered including monopiles, jackets,

suction buckets and gravity based foundations. The trans-

mission system will feature up to 275 km of 33-72.5 kV

array cables, two offshore substations with up to 15 km of

33-400kV subsea interconnector cabling and up to two

65km long 132-400kV subsea export cables. It is planned

that offshore construction will take place from 2022 for 36

months. MOWL is owned by EDP Renováveis who are also

developing the Moray East project which is due to reach

financial close during Autumn 2018.

GLOBAL TECH 1 BACK TO FULL POWER

Global Tech 1 have re-installed a nacelle which was dis-

mantled in April following the detection of abnormalities

by the condition monitoring system. 4C understands that

the work was undertaken by MPI Enterprise. The 400MW

project was one of the first offshore wind farms to be built

in the German North Sea. It features 80 5MW AD 5-116

turbines, mounted on tripod foundations which have been

in operation since 2015. This is not the first issue GT1 has

faced; in 2016 a total of eight nacelles were de-installed.

After an intensive service programme in Bremerhaven,

they were thoroughly tested on the local test stand area

before being reinstalled during the summer last year. GT1

stated that they will not speculate on any potential causes

and await the results of the root cause analysis.

+44 (0)1502 307 037 info@4coffshore.com