Construction of the offshore electricity substation that will serve the HelWin2 export cable in the German North Sea began last week, at Heerema Fabrication Group’s facility in Zwijndrecht near Rotterdam.
With steel cutting for the platform topsides underway, the HelWin2 substation is scheduled for completion and transportation by mid-2014. Installation is planned for the third quarter of 2014. The substation project is a joint venture between Heerema and Siemens.
The first offshore wind farm due to be connected to the land-based grid via HelWin2 will be E.ON’s 288MW Amrumbank West project.
The HelWin2 substation is part of a troubled grid expansion programme funded and managed by transmission system operator, TenneT. The Dutch Government-owned company has been widely criticised for failing to invest enough to allow for rapid expansion of the North Sea electricity network.
Commencement of work on the HelWin2 substation has coincided with news that DONG Energy has put its plans to develop Borkum Riffgrund 2 on hold, in response to TenneT’s failure to specify when it will install the DolWin3 export cable and related infrastructure.
* In related news, a geophysical survey was completed last month, by Swedish firm MMT for Amrumbank West’s inter-array cables. The project will feature 80 3.6MW Siemens turbines.
