High voltage engineering specialist, EDS HV Group (EDS), part of the UK’s leading marine services company – James Fisher and Sons plc, has successfully completed its scope of work at the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC), also known as the Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm.
EDS was subcontracted by Boskalis for the cable termination and testing work.
Located off Aberdeen Bay, the pioneering offshore wind farm has 11 turbines with a total generating capacity of 93.2MW. They are the most powerful, deployed wind turbines in the world with each rotation generating enough energy to power a home for 24 hours.
The EOWDC project has enabled Swedish energy group Vattenfall, the developers behind the wind farm, to trial new technology and is only the second commercial offshore wind farm worldwide to use an innovative 66kV cabling system. Compared with conventional 33kV cabling less inter-array cabling is required, and this reduces construction costs.
EDS completed the cable termination and testing work on the 11 assets, providing the expertise and skill set required to work with the increased voltage.
In addition, EDS HV Management also provided HV consulting services to the EOWDC as part of a separate contract that included safety rules implementation, the supply of Senior Authorised Persons (SAPs), network and SCADA system review and commissioning support services.
Ken Ritson, Group Managing Director of EDS said: “66kV is quickly becoming the industry norm, and any change such as this needs to be carefully managed. EDS were happy to offer the enhanced level of competence and experience required to help to manage this change”.
Overall, the EOWDC involved just over 21km of cabling from the offshore site to the substation in Blackdog, Aberdeenshire – similar to the distance from Aberdeen to Stonehaven.