Alstom hands over offshore substation for wind farm to Trianel

Alstom Grid has successfully delivered the offshore substation platform for the Trianel wind farm Borkum in the German North Sea, and handed it over to Trianel Windkraftwerk Borkum GmbH & Co. KG. The offshore installation of the substation, manufactured in Bremerhaven, northern Germany, was completed on 14. April.

Borkum is a 56 square-kilometre wind farm, located around 45 kilometres north of the Borkum coast. The wind farm consists of 80 wind turbines with a total power of 400 MW to be installed at water depths of 25 to 35 metres in two expansion stages. After the completion of the first expansion stage with a performance of 200 MW, it will generate up to 800 million KW hours (KWh) of energy a year; enough to supply almost 200,000 households with power.

Alstoms offshore substation platform connects the turbines to the onshore power grid at the connection point. The full scope of the contract includes a F35¹ gas-insulated substation and two 225 MVAr transformers for the platform. Alstoms Dresden site (Saxony) was in charge of project management, while teams at Mönchengladbach (North Rhine-Westphalia) delivered the transformers. WeserWind Offshore Construction GmbH in Bremerhaven produced the steel structure for the platform.

Wolfgang Voss, Member of the Board for ALSTOM Deutschland AG said, Alstom is proud to make another important contribution to implementing the energy turnaround with our project teams in Germany. In addition to this successful installation at Borkum wind park, the installation of the Global Tech 1 offshore substation is imminent and the offshore substation platforms for the Baltic 2 and Meerwind wind farms are currently available in the form of a steel bodyshell. This is impressive evidence of our leading position in this field.

Alstom is a leader in the European offshore wind substation market and is currently implementing several alternating current (AC) offshore substation projects in Germany. Alstom is also pioneering High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) technology for offshore substations and, in February, was awarded the DolWin3 project by Transmission System Operator TenneT. The project connects the North Sea wind farms to the mainland Supergrid and has an investment volume of more than 1 billion. Alstom will supply and construct both the onshore and offshore converter stations as well as the connecting cable systems as a turnkey solution.

The Borkum wind farm is being constructed by Trianel in association with 33 municipal participators from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, making it the first municipal offshore wind farm in the North Sea. The total investment sum for both expansion stages of the wind farm is around 1.6 billion. It is scheduled to enter commercial operation in late 2013.

About Alstom

Alstom is a global leader in the world of power generation, power transmission and rail infrastructure and sets the benchmark for innovative and environmentally friendly technologies. Alstom builds the fastest train and the highest capacity automated metro in the world, provides turnkey integrated power plant solutions and associated services for a wide variety of energy sources, including hydro, nuclear, gas, coal and wind, and it offers a wide range of solutions for power transmission, with a focus on smart grids. The Group employs 92,600 people in around 100 countries. It had sales of 20 billion and booked close to 22 billion in orders in 2011/12. 

In Germany, Alstom has a workforce of 9,000 people, working on 24 sites in power generation, energy transmission and rail infrastructure. 

Alstom Grid has over 100 years of expertise in electrical grids. Whether for utilities or electro-intensive industries or facilitating the trading of energy, Alstom Grid brings power to its customers projects. Alstom Grid ranks among the top 3 in electrical transmission sector with an annual sales turnover of more than 4 billion. It has 20,000 employees and over 90 manufacturing and engineering sites worldwide. At the heart of the development of Smart Grid, Alstom Grid offers products, services and integrated energy management solutions across the full energy value chainfrom power generation, through transmission and distribution grids and to the large end user.

_____________

[1] The GIS F35 features a compact, environmentally friendly design: low overall dimensions, low weight thanks to the use of aluminium alloys for the encapsulation housing and three-phase encapsulation throughout the entire system.

Press Contact
Nathalie Bourotte (Alstom Grid) Tel +33 1 49 01 62 17 Nathalie.bourotte@alstom.com
Dominik Beyer (Alstom Germany) Tel.: +49 621 329 1537 dominik.beyer@power.alstom.com

Website www.alstom.com/grid

• Off shore and on shore wind farm grid connections