Installation of Belgian Topside for Offshore Substation Marks Milestone in Further Construction of Merkur Offshore Wind Farm
Monday 23 April 2018
The topside for the offshore substation for the Merkur Offshore Wind Farm was installed over the weekend.
The topside is the result of a close cooperation between Belgian companies that are major players in the international offshore wind energy market. With companies like Tractebel (engineering), ENGIE-Fabricom (electromechanics), Iemants (steel constructions) and GeoSea (contracting) Flanders had developed a leading cluster of offshore wind energy experts, executing the most complex projects on the European market.
GeoSea, DEME’s specialist in complex offshore marine engineering projects, is undertaking the EPCI contract for the Balance of Plant (BoP) for Merkur, including the design, procurement, manufacturing, installation and commissioning of the foundation structures, cables and offshore substation as well as the installation of the Wind Energy Converters (WEC’s).
The joint venture ENGIE Fabricom-Tractebel and Iemants was awarded with the contract for the engineering, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning of the offshore substation and associated jacket foundation.
The topside structure has 4 decks, is 20 metres tall, weighs 2,500 tonnes and has an output capacity of 396 MW.
The owner and developer of the Merkur wind farm is Merkur Offshore GmbH, a joint venture between its shareholders Partners Group, InfraRed Capital Partners, DEME Concessions and Coriolis. The 396 MW wind farm is scheduled for commissioning in 2018.