Siemens to supply turbines and grid connection for Beatrice offshore windfarm

Siemens has secured a contract to supply, install and commission 84 wind turbines for the Beatrice offshore wind project in the UK. The company will supply 7MW turbines and has also been made responsible for the offshore grid connection to the mainland in consortium with Nexans, who will supply the connecting export cables.

Siemens will also deliver the onshore and offshore substations, consisting of two offshore transformer modules. The customer, Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL), is a partnership formed between SSE (40 per cent), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (35 per cent) and SDIC Power (25 per cent). The windfarm will have a capacity of 588MW. Once it is built, Siemens will also be responsible for servicing the windfarm for 15 years.

“This is a significant order for our new 7MW turbine,” said Michael Hannibal, chief executive of the offshore market unit of the Siemens’ wind power and renewables division. “We are looking forward to working with our customer on this large offshore wind power project off the Scottish coast.”

“We are proud to announce the first reference for our newly developed offshore transformer module together with our customer,” said Mirko Düsel, chief executive of the transmission solutions business unit at Siemens. “The application of low weight distributed substations is an important lever for reaching Siemens’ goal of reducing the costs of wind power generated offshore to below 10 euro cts/kWh by 2020.”

The Beatrice offshore windfarm will be around 14km off the Scottish coast. The SWT-7.0-154 wind turbines will be erected on jacket foundations in water depths of 35-56m. Siemens plans to produce the corresponding wind turbine blades for Beatrice at its Hull facility.

Installation of the wind turbines is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2018. The service contract for the windfarm also includes remote monitoring and diagnostics for the wind turbines to ensure their long-term availability and performance. The logistics concept for the facility includes the use of a helicopter.

For the grid access solution, Siemens will deliver two offshore transformer modules , which are one third smaller in size and weight compared to a conventional alternating current (AC) platform. Siemens’ partner in delivering the offshore grid connection, Nexans, will be responsible for design, supply and installation of the export cable, both offshore and onshore. The transformer modules will be linked together to provide the required transmission capacity. “Focusing on the core electrical equipment and removing a number of optional ancillary systems made this space and weight reduction possible, which also results in a reduced maintenance regime,” Siemens said. The grid access solution will be project managed and engineered from the Siemens Energy Management Renewable Energy Engineering Centre in Manchester, UK.