Centrica Renewables Energy Ltd. has confirmed that Global Marine Energy Ltd., the largest independent provider of subsea power cable installation, maintenance and related engineering services worldwide, has successfully completed its portion of the cable landing and near shore cable works related to the export cable at the LINCS Offshore wind farm.
The LINCS offshore wind farm is located off the east coast of the United Kingdom and is a joint venture between Centrica (50%) DONG Energy and Siemens Project Ventures. LINCS is immediately adjacent to the Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms, two of Centrica’s renewable projects that were completed and made operational in 2009. Once operational, the LINCS site will have an installed capacity of approximately 270MW.
“Installing power cables in very shallow water presents some of the greatest challenges in our industry.” said Mark Leggett, Global Marine Energy CEO . “In this particular case the spring tides further complicated matters by presenting a very limited working window. Detailed planning, excellent support from the customer and well timed execution all contributed to a successful result.”
Global Marine Energy installed the approximately 8km of 132 kV subsea power cable utilising the cable barge Nautilus Maxi which had been modified to meet the unique requirements of the project.
“Global Marine Energy installed a very challenging portion of our cable infrastructure on schedule.” said Lawrence Smith LINCS Cables Project Manager of Centrica.
By the end of 2012, the LINCS wind farm is expected to be operational and will power the annual electricity requirements of approximately 200,000 households, making a significant contribution towards the 2020 UK carbon reduction targets.
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Offshore WIND staff, June 13, 2012; Image: seloy