When the Luxembourg-based Jan De Nul Group was hired to install a 245kV export cable at the Northwind wind farm, it knew that the process involved was far from straightforward. Nevertheless, the respected engineering firm excelled in the task, as this case study illustrates…
Project description
Northwind NV has been established by shareholders Parkwind NV and Aspiravi Offshore to build the Northwind wind farm at the ‘Lodewijk Bank’, 40 km offshore the Belgian coast at the eastern border of territorial waters. The wind farm has a total production capacity of 216 MW with 72 turbines and 1 OHVS installed.
To connect the wind farm with the onshore grid, Jan De Nul Group was awarded with the installation contract for a 245 kV submarine export cable of 42 km. Additionally, a second export cable of 14 km was installed by Jan De Nul Group between the Northwind OHVS and wet stored at the future location of the affiliated Belwind 2 expansion.
The scope further involved the installation of the onshore connection cable (3.1 km) from the joint pit at the beach in Zeebrugge to the high voltage onshore grid connection in the port of Zeebrugge.
The project was awarded in March 2012. Engineering continued until April 2013 when construction started as scheduled, resulting in a successful completion of the works in October 2013.
