Walney 1 offshore substation installed
On Tuesday 15 June 2010, one gigantic lifting operation concluded the installation of the offshore substation for Walney 1, and a very important milestone for the Walney project was achieved.

Logistics and heavy lifts
The 1,100-tonne heavy offshore substation together with the 1,000-tonne heavy jacket foundation left Bladt Industries in Aalborg, Denmark, on 31 May 2010 to be transported across the North Sea.

Due to the nature of these operations, both the transport on open sea and the heavy lifts needed for the installation were very dependent on favourable weather conditions. The substation and the heavy-lift vessel Rambiz arrived safely at the site, and on Wednesday 9 June 2010, the jacket foundation was carefully lifted into place by Rambiz.



In order to keep the jacket placed in its position, four 60-metre long steel piles were placed in the corners of the jacket. After a thorough process, where the jacket was vertically levelled, the jacket and piles were grouted together. The grouting needed 24 hours to harden up before the transformer platform could carry the load of the substation.



The grout had dried, and Tuesday 15 June 2010 turned out to be a sunny and calm day – a perfect day for the lifting of the heavy substation. After extensive preparations, Rambiz once again showed her muscles and concluded the lifting operation with the lift bringing the substation on top of the jacket.

Touch down
At 18:55 on 15 June 2010, the offshore transformer had touch down on the jacket, and over the next few days it will be welded together with the jacket. With the offshore substation in place, the commissioning will begin and ensure that the offshore hook-up and commissioning of the offshore substation are completed in due time from June to October 2010.



Important milestone
For Senior Project Manager Jens Hansen, this was a very important milestone for the Walney project: "As the power from the 51 wind turbines in Walney 1 will go through the substation, the offshore substation is a critical element for the whole project. With the offshore substation well in place, we have eliminated one major challenge in the project, and we can now focus on other upcoming tasks. One of these is the installation of the first turbine, which will take place within a few weeks' time".

Monopile and transition piece installation
The weather is still friendly and the installation of the monopiles and the transition pieces is progressing according to schedule. So far, 25 monopiles and 21 transition pieces have been successfully installed, and on the harbour in Barrow, a further 16 monopiles and 9 transition pieces are ready for installation. The next shipload with 5 transition pieces is approaching the harbour.

Safety zone
The whole construction site has been marked with buoys in the four corners. Access to the area is restricted for vessels when construction is ongoing, and a 500-metre safety zone is imposed around the actual construction site for safety reasons. As the installation often involves divers and submarine anchors, it is vital to secure the working area. A guard ship is positioned in the area to secure the safety zone, and all activity is constantly monitored by the Marine Coordinator from the site-office in Barrow.

After the installation of the offshore substation, the Rambiz has demobilised and left the site, leaving the area to some 20 vessels, comprising installation vessels, crew boats and tug boats.

One of the boats is a fishery survey vessel doing a 750-metre sampling of the area.

Offshore cable laying
The introductory preparations for pulling ashore the high-voltage connecting the wind farm with the general high-voltage grid has been in progress during the past couple of weeks off South Lakeland Caravan Park.

The cable barge carrying 45km 132kV submarine cable will arrive at Morecambe Bay south of Heysham Power Plant around Saturday 26 June 2010. The cable barge will beach, which means that it grounds on the seabed during low tide and the submarine cable is pulled ashore from the barge. When the cable has been pulled to shore, a large plough will plough the cable into the seabed. At the next high tide, the cable barge will continue laying and ploughing cable from Morecambe Bay to the offshore platform.

Laying of the submarine cables between the wind turbines in the wind farm will commence on 1 July 2010.

Preparation of the submarine cable on shore

Cable route on the intertidal area. The cable barge will 'ground' about a couple of hundred metres further out than the piles showing the cable route.

Cable crossing – the Barrow Offshore Windfarm cable is protected with a sheet pile during the operation.



The Walney submarine cable will be pulled through a duct installed underneath the Barrow Cable (BOW) and excavated two metres into the seabed. The pre-installed duct will reduce the required time for pulling the submarine cable from the grounded barge to the transition joint on land, where the submarine cable is connected to the land cable.

Onshore cable lying

Cable jointing ongoing by cable jointers from Prysmian. On the cable route, 95% of all cable ducts are installed.

Onshore substation
The work on the onshore substation is in progress. The reactor is installed and all major components of the harmonic filter compound are on site. The building is ready for all control panels/cubicles for the wind farm. It is planned that the remaining installation is done until mid-July – then the commissioning process will begin with a scheduled duration of two months.

Press tour to the Walney Offshore Windfarm
The Walney (UK) Offshore Windfarms Limited has planned a press tour to Walney 1 on July 6 2010 in order to inform about the project and the challenge of erecting the 367.2MW offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea.
The tour is intended for journalists, photographers, radio and TV and similar media. As there is an upper limit as to the number of participants, Walney (UK) Offshore Windfarms Limited reserves the right to divide the seats.

Interested?
If you are interested in participating in the tour, please contact us on e-mail as soon as possible.

The Walney Offshore Windfarm The Walney Offshore Windfarm project is located approximately 15km west of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. The project consists of Walney 1 and Walney 2 each with 51 - 3.6MW turbines, giving a total capacity of the Walney project of 367.2MW. The rotor diameter of the turbines is 107m for Walney 1 and 120m for Walney 2, with a maximum height of 150m from blade tip to sea level. The total area of the development is some 73km2.