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Nexans cables set sail for Scotland

By: Matthew White 05/04/2018 Nexans

Equipment General Windfarms

The project to bring power ashore from Beatrice offshore wind farm has reached two milestones: the completion of on-site testing of the first 400 kV onshore cable link and load out of the final section of export cable onto the Skagerrak cable laying vessel at Nexans facility in Norway.

Nexans is contracted to create the high voltage power export connection for Scotland’s 588MW Beatrice offshore wind farm. The first of the two 400 kV onshore cable links and the high voltage accessories have now been installed successfully and tested on site.

At the same time, the Nexans factory in Norway has completed the manufacturing of the 220kV offshore cable and loaded the final section onto the Group’s cable laying vessel Skagerrak 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.

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 UK subsidiary of China’s SDIC Power Holding Co. Located in the Moray Firth, Beatrice offshore wind farm will have the combined output of 84 SWT-7.0-154 Siemens Gamesa turbines capable of generating enough electricity to power approximately 450,000 homes.

To export the energy from the wind farm to the grid, the two offshore cables take a route of 70km along the seabed to a landfall point to the west of Portgordon on the Moray coast. A transition joint bay connects the cables to the onshore cable system, which takes a 20km route to Blackhillock substation. From there, the 400kV onshore cables will transmit the electricity to the grid.

Nexans was awarded the turnkey contract to design, manufacture, test, deliver, and install both circuits of the complete power transmission cable system. This included the delivery of a total of 265km of cables, including 145km of 220kV offshore cables, 115km of 220kV and 5km of 400kV onshore cables and the associated high voltage accessories.

Nexans completed the laying and burial of the first offshore cable route in 2017 and connected it to the offshore platform in February 2018. In March 2018, Nexans installed the 400kV onshore circuits and their outdoor sealing ends using its expertise of carrying out the termination works horizontally prior to connecting them vertically at Blackhillock substation.

“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. “For many years Nexans has been committed to facilitating the energy transition in Europe and worldwide, and we are proud to contribute to building Scotland’s largest wind farm.”

The offshore cables for the Beatrice offshore wind farm were produced in Halden, Norway, the onshore cables were manufactured at Nexans Benelux facility in Charleroi, Belgium and the associated high voltage accessories were delivered by Nexans Switzerland.

Last month Nexans completed the installation of North America’s longest submarine electricity cables as part of the Maritime Link project conducted by NSP Maritime Link Inc. (NSPML), an indirect subsidiary of Emera Inc.

The delivery of two 200 kV mass impregnated (MI) high voltage direct current (HVDC) cables was the culmination of almost four years of engineering work at Nexans’ factories in Halden, Norway and in Futtsu, Japan. Each cable is 170km long and weighs approximately 5,500 tons.

For over 15 years Nexans has been a key driver in the development of wind farm technology. It was the first company to manufacture three-core 245kV submarine cables as well as the first to manufacture 420kV submarine cables. To date, Nexans cables have enabled in excess of 3,500MW of offshore wind farm energy to be integrated into power grids across the world.

For more information please follow the links provided. Click here for our interactive map.

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Nexans cables set sail for Scotland

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