Offshore substations installed

The two offshore substations have been installed at London Array, marking a key phase in the project’s construction.

Built on three levels, the substations weigh over 1,260 tonnes each – roughly the equivalent of 200 African elephants.

Richard Rigg, Project Director at London Array, said: “This is a fantastic achievement for us and a real sign of progress as we look to build the first phase of what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm once complete.

“We should never underplay the difficulties of working offshore – especially when we’re using a 3,300 tonne lift-capacity floating crane to place something that’s 25m by 23m, and 22m tall, onto a foundation 15km from shore, but it’s fair to say things went swimmingly.”

The substations will transform the electricity generated by the wind turbines from 33,000 volts to 150,000 volts before exporting it, via four 50km export cables, to the new onshore substation at Cleve Hill, where the voltage will be increased to 400,000 volts before being fed into the existing 400,000 volt National Grid transmission network.

The substations were designed, built and installed by Future Energy a joint venture between Fabricom, lemants and Geosea, with the electrical systems supplied and installed by Siemens Transmission and Distribution Limited.