Siemens has received an order to supply 84 wind turbines, as well as the grid connection, for the 588 MW Beatrice wind project off the coast of Scotland.
The company will supply, install and commission the SWT-7.0-154 towers, each with a 154-meter rotor diameter. The customer, Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd., is a partnership formed between SSE (40%), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (35%) and SDIC Power (25%).
The Beatrice offshore wind farm will be located approximately 14 kilometers from the Scottish coast. The 7 MW wind turbines will be erected on jacket foundations in ocean depths of 35-56 meters.
Installation of the turbines is scheduled to begin in summer 2018. Following commissioning of the project in 2019, Siemens will be responsible for turbine service and maintenance under a 15-year contract, which also covers remote monitoring and diagnostics.
For the grid-access solution, Siemens will deliver two offshore transformer modules (OTMs) that are one-third smaller in size and weight compared to a conventional alternating-current platform, the company says.
Siemens’ partner in delivering the offshore grid connection, Nexans, will be responsible for the design, supply and installation of the export cable, both offshore and onshore. The OTMs will be linked together to provide the required transmission capacity. The grid-access solution will be managed and engineered from the Siemens Energy Management Renewable Energy Engineering Centre in Manchester, U.K.
Mirko Düsel, CEO of Siemens’ transmission solutions business, notes that this order marks the first for the company’s new OTM.
“The application of lightweight distributed substations is an important lever for reaching Siemens’ goal of reducing the costs of wind power generated offshore to below EUR 0.10/kWh by 2020,” Düsel says.
