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Offshore substation installed at Saint-Brieuc wind farm

Published by , Assistant Editor
Energy Global,


Ailes Marines, a company wholly owned by the Iberdrola group, has announced the successful installation of the offshore substation at the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm in Brittany, France.

This installation was carried out by the Saipem 7000 lifting vessel, owned by the Italian company Saipem.

The substation was installed in two stages. After the installation of the jacket foundation (1630 t) on its four piles, the topside (3400 t) was installed on its foundation during the night of 6 July.

The foundation of the electricity substation is 63 m high and weighs a total of 1630 t. The topside is 55 m long, 31 m wide, and 23 m high, with a total weight of approximately 3400 t. Smulders (a subsidiary of Eiffage Métal) carried out the engineering and manufacturing of the jacket foundation and the steel structure of the topside.

Equans designed and equipped the low voltage electrical part of the topside, including the auxiliary systems and the integration of the medium and high voltage equipment supplied by GE Grid Solutions.

The jacket and topside were pre-assembled by Smulders at the Hoboken yard near Antwerp, Belgium. The final assembly of the topside was carried out at the Equans yard in Hoboken. The final assembly of the jacket foundation was carried out at the Heerema yard in Vlissingen, the Netherlands.

Connection to the electricity grid operational in 2023

Technicians from Equans and Smulders will work on the OSS to commission it. Once operational, the fully automated substation will be remotely controlled and monitored. Technicians will be available for maintenance operations via personnel vessels.

The substation will collect the electricity produced by the 62 wind turbines by raising the voltage through power transformers. The electricity will then be transported by Réseau de Transport d'Electricité (RTE) via two export cables with a voltage of 225 kV.

The connection by Réseau de Transport d'Electricité (RTE) of the electrical substation to the export cables to the mainland will be operational before the installation of the wind turbines planned for 2023.

Emmanuel Rollin, Director of Offshore France at Iberdrola, said: "With the successful installation of the electrical substation, the Saint-Brieuc wind farm is now more than ever at sea. This operation, which was completed in a relatively short timeframe, is a testament to the expertise and involvement of all the teams at Ailes Marines, its contractors and local stakeholders, who have been involved in the development and implementation of this ambitious project for over 10 years. By the end of 2023, the Côtes d'Armor department, with the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm, will be the leading contributor of renewable energy in Brittany, producing the equivalent of 9% of the region's total electricity consumption."

 

 

 

For more news and technical articles from the global renewable industry, read the latest issue of Energy Global magazine.

Energy Global's Summer 2022 issue

The Summer 2022 issue of Energy Global hosts an array of technical articles focusing on wind, solar, biofuels, green hydrogen, geothermal, and more. This issue also features a regional report discussing the outlook for renewables in the US.

Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/wind/08072022/offshore-substation-installed-at-saint-brieuc-wind-farm/

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