France-headquartered Nexans has completed the offshore export cable pull-ins for both offshore substation platforms at the 882 MW Moray West wind farm, located in the Moray Firth in the northeast of Scotland.
The cable-laying vessel Nexans Aurora took advantage of a recent period of favorable weather to carry out the task, according to Ocean Winds’ recent social media post.
The cable pull-in marks a key milestone for the project, with offshore substation platforms commissioning teams currently working on cable terminations as part of the wider commissioning tasks, supported by the team onboard the jack-up vessel Leviathan, said the company.
According to Ocean Winds, a 50-50 joint venture between ENGIE and EDP Renewables, the next step will be the upcoming energization of the first circuit.
Nexans started pull-in work on the two export cables at the offshore site in November 2023. The cables were manufactured by the French company at its factory in Halden under a contract signed with Ocean Winds in 2021.
The Moray West offshore wind farm comprises two offshore substation platforms. The first unit was installed in December 2023 by Boskalis’ DP installation vessel Bokalift 1 which also mounted the second OSP on its foundations at the beginning of this year.
The substations are Siemens Energy’s offshore transformer modules (OTMs), delivered under a contract secured by the consortium of Siemens Energy and Iemants, a subsidiary of Smulders.
Both OTMs have been fabricated at the yard with Siemens Energy managing the fit-out of their equipment onto the OTMs from their Manchester base.
Moray West , owned by Ocean Winds and minority shareholder Ignitis Group, will comprise 60 Siemens Gamesa 14.7 MW wind turbines and is scheduled to generate power in 2024 and be fully operational in 2025.