Press release
The electrical substation of the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm has been successfully installed
Pleudaniel / Lézardrieux / Saint-Brieuc / Paris – July 8, 2022 –
● Ailes Marines , a company 100% owned by the Iberdrola group, announces the complete installation of the electrical substation (OSS) of the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm.
● The Saipem company installed the foundation and the electrical substation at sea, the first in Brittany.
● This is the second substation installed on an offshore wind farm in France.
● “At the end of 2023, the Côtes d'Armor department, with the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm, will be the leading contributor to renewable energy in Brittany, producing the equivalent of 9% of the Region's total electricity consumption . “ welcomed Emmanuel Rollin, Offshore France Director of Iberdrola.
July
The Saipem 7000 ship installs the first electrical substation at sea in Brittany
The Saipem company has installed the first electrical substation at sea in Brittany. This is the second substation installed on an offshore wind farm in France.
This extraordinary installation operation was carried out by the Saipem 7000 vessel, one of the largest lifting vessels in the world, belonging to the Italian company Saipem. This crane vessel concentrates a capacity and technology particularly suited to this type of operation.
The installation of the substation was carried out in two stages. After laying the “jacket” foundation (1,630 tonnes) on its 4 piles, the “topside” (3,400 tonnes) was installed on its foundation on the night of July 6.
The OSS, a centerpiece of the wind farm
The substation consists of two elements manufactured separately and assembled at sea: the lower part, the “jacket” foundation, fixed to the seabed by piles and the upper part, the “topside”, which houses all the equipment electrical.
The foundation of the electrical substation is 63 meters high with a total weight of 1,630 tonnes. The “topside” measures 55 meters long, 31 meters wide and 23 meters high, with a total weight of approximately 3,400 tonnes.
The Smulders company (a subsidiary of Eiffage Métal) carried out the engineering and manufacturing of the jacket foundation and the metal structure of the “topside”.
Equans designed and equipped the low voltage electrical part of the “topside”, including the auxiliary systems and the integration of medium and high voltage equipment supplied by GE Grid Solutions.
The jacket and the “topside” were pre-assembled by Smulders on the Hoboken site near Antwerp in Belgium. The final assembly of the “topside” was carried out at the Equans shipyard in Hoboken. The final assembly of the jacket foundation was carried out at the Heerema site in Vlissingen in the Netherlands.
Connection to the operational electricity network in 2023
Technicians from the Equans and Smulders companies will work on the OSS for its commissioning. Once operational, the fully automated substation will be operated and controlled remotely. Technicians will intervene for maintenance operations via personnel transport vessels.
The substation will collect the electricity produced by the 62 wind turbines by raising the electrical voltage, through power transformers. The electricity will then be transported by the Electricity Transport Network (RTE) via two export cables with a voltage of 225 kV.
The connection by Electricity Transmission Network (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, Offshore France Director of Iberdrola, welcomed “With the successful installation of the electrical substation, the Saint-Brieuc wind farm comes out of the sea more than ever. This operation, carried out in a relatively short time, brings to fruition the control and involvement of all Ailes Marines teams, its contractors and local stakeholders, engaged for more than 10 years in the development and realization of this ambitious project. At the end of 2023, the Côtes d'Armor department, with the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm, will be the leading contributor to renewable energy in Brittany, producing the equivalent of 9% of the Region's total electricity consumption. “
All information concerning the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm project developed by the company Ailes Marines is available on the website www.ailes-marines.bzh
Ailes Marines news on twitter @AilesMarines
About Ailes Marines
- 75 km2 of area
- 62 Siemens Gamesa SG 8.0-167 DD 8 MW wind turbines
- 496 MW of installed power
- 1,820 GWh/year of production, i.e. the annual electricity consumption of 835,000 inhabitants (heating included)
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