Siemens has bagged the grid connection contract for the 950MW Moray East offshore wind farm, which is being built in the UK North Sea.
Image: Siemens bags grid connection contract for Moray East. Photo: courtesy of Siemens plc.
Under its contract, Siemens will be responsible for delivery all the components needed to connect the Moray East offshore wind farm to the UK grid. Included in these are the offshore transformer modules (OTM) and an onshore station.
OTM will be used for transforming the output of the wind turbines from 66kV to the transmission voltage of 220kV while the onshore station will transform the power generated from the offshore wind farm into 275kV for feeding it into the transmission grid.
Developed by a joint venture company owned by EDP Renewables, Engie and Diamond Generation Europe, the Moray East project recently secured financing from a syndicate of 16 commercial banks along with Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and Denmark’s Export Credit Agency (EKF).
The offshore wind farm’s financing includes a £2.1bn debt facility and £0.5bn of ancillary facilities.
For Siemens, the project would become the 11th offshore wind farm to be connected by it to the UK mainland. Further, the Moray East project is the company’s largest offshore grid connection in the UK till date in terms of transmission capacity and order entry.
The company will deliver three OTM for the project, which will be linked together to cover the rated capacity of 950MW for the offshore wind project. Fabrication of the three modules has been given to Smulders, said Siemens.
The German firm will handle the complete onshore substation as well, which includes three SVC Plus static VAR compensators and three offshore substation platform topsides.
Siemens energy management managing director Carl Ennis said: “These large-scale renewable projects make me incredibly proud. Not only do they incorporate our engineering excellence on a massive scale, they showcase our commitment to renewables and clean energy generation.
“We are delighted our market-leading technology is being used on this project.”
Expected to be commissioned fully by 2021, the Moray East offshore wind farm will comprise 100 turbines, each of 9.5MW capacity that will be supplied by MHI Vestas.