Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm is under construction on sandbanks approximately 25 km off the coast of Suffolk in the UK and is due for completion in 2012. It has a capacity of 500 megawatts (MW) making it the world’s largest offshore wind farm once it becomes operational and Siemens Energy is supplying the 140 3.6 MW wind turbines which connect the wind farm to the National Grid. Greater Gabbard will play a vital part in supplying green electricity to meet the EU target to obtain 20 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020.
To assist in the safe operation of the wind farm, the business unit Security Solutions from the Siemens Building Technologies Division will deliver life-critical telecoms, CCTV including a virtual video network and integrated alarm monitoring across a fully integrated IP based monitoring network which includes Voice-Over IP operating 25 km out at sea. To enable viewing of the video data from the UK and Europe, Siemens is also integrating the video alarms and monitoring into a Siemens SCADA platform, and the client’s IP network.
The primary purpose of the surveillance of the offshore wind farm is to evaluate conditions on the remote site, safeguard personnel and monitor the operation offshore. The video information is also used for logistic purposes, planning and for potential incident evaluation.
Both the network and the equipment chosen had to be robust and resilient to meet the challenge of this hostile marine environment. This project required a delivery methodology to accommodate the demands of both land and sea and to meet the key critical health and safety challenges set by the two different environments for delivery and maintenance.
