Two substations for the SeaMade offshore wind farm have been successfully installed in the Belgian North Sea. This installation marks a major milestone in the construction of Belgium’s largest offshore wind farm.
Each with a weight of 1,200 tons, the substations transform the wind energy that is produced to 225 kV, which in turn allows the electricity to be brought to shore via Elia’s Modular Offshore Grid (MOG). The export cable transmitting the electricity to shore has been installed earlier with DEME’s cable installation vessel Living Stone.
The installation of the substations was executed with heavy-lift vessel Gulliver, operated by DEME’s subsidiary Scaldis, which specializes in marine heavy-lifting works. Earlier, DEME’s offshore installation vessel Innovation installed all of the foundations, including those for the two substations.
“Despite the challenging weather conditions over the past weeks, the SeaMade project is firmly on track,” says Bart de Poorter, general manager of DEME Offshore.
“The successful installation of the two offshore substations was only made possible thanks to the close cooperation between the SeaMade team and our partners Smulders, ENGIE Fabricom and Tractebel, as well as the highly skilled experts on board of our vessels,” he adds.
The installation of 58 turbines will begin in the spring. DEME will deploy its offshore installation vessel Apollo, which recently performed the foundation piling operation at the Moray East offshore wind farm in Scotland. The vessel has had a full order book since its inauguration in February of 2019.
In April, cable installation vessel Living Stone will start the installation of the inter-array cables.
Photo: DEME performing installations at the Seamade offshore wind farm
