A flurry of North Sea and North American offshore substation awards culminated Thursday in a contract award to GE Renewable Energy’s Grid Solutions business from EDF Renewables and ESB for their Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind project.
GE said it was a multimillion-dollar contract or frame agreement that covers onshore and offshore wind substations the NnG wind park, some 12 miles offshore Scotland’s Fife coast. Neart na Gaoithe — which means Strength of the Wind — now has the suppliers lined-up to build and commission all its substations, including a 400/220 kilovolt (kV) onshore wind substation built on a greenfield site.
In a consortium deal, HSM Offshore BV in the Netherlands will build the offshore topside platform designed by IV-One to house GE’s 220kV and 66kV substations.
“The project’s onshore and offshore substation equipment includes four power transformers, four reactors, the static synchronous compensator (STATCOM), power quality components, and gas insulated switchgear—at 66kV, 220kV and 400kV—as well as protection and control, SCADA, and telecommunications systems. This solution will allow for 450 megawatts (MW) of low carbon energy to be connected to the Scottish electricity grid.
UK-based EDF Renewables and Irish Energy company ESB operate across Ireland’s electricity and is seeing the growth of its British business. “GE is responsible for the turnkey delivery of all infrastructure within the perimeter, including ground works and civil construction,” a communique said, adding that NnG is expected to be fully operational by 2023.
With deep-pocketed players like Norway’s Equinor at-hand, Scotland is seeing a wind energy surge. Already, some 4.47 million homes are electrified by wind power, and the NnG project is seen adding 375,000 more, effectively doubling the country’s domestic power needs.