The Netherlands: SSB Wind Systems Exhibits at EWEA Offshore 2011

SSB Wind Systems GmbH & Co. KG, a leading supplier of electric pitch systems for wind turbines (WTGs), will be presenting itself at the EWEA Offshore 2011 in Amsterdam. The company offers decades of expertise in offshore wind energy and will be showcasing its control and pitch solutions for offshore turbines.

Offshore wind energy projects pose enormous challenges to everyone involved and therefore require a high degree of expertise and, above all, many years of experience. More than 10 years ago, SSB Wind Systems equipped one of the first offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Sweden with electric pitch systems. The company from Salzbergen, Germany also played a key role in the implementation of one of the most ambitious offshore projects in the Irish Sea in 2002. As a result of the accelerated expansion of offshore wind energy, the broad know-how gained by SSB Wind Systems from these and similar large-scale projects, is more in demand than ever before. Nowadays the company mainly supplies major wind turbine manufacturers with systems for offshore turbines in the North Sea and Baltic Sea with an output range from 5 to 10 MW.

A high degree of reliability and the corresponding failure protection of all components and systems is vital for ensureing maximum turbine availability within the particular environmental conditions to which offshore WTGs are exposed. This is particularly important given that offshore service work is not only expensive and time-consuming but also extremely weather dependent.

For this reason, the applications developed by SSB Wind Systems have been specially designed for offshore use. Amongst other things, reliability is improved by means of the redundant design of the electronics and electrical technology, e.g. in the areas of control electronics and power supply as well as in the battery charging technology and battery charge monitoring system for the electric pitch system. In addition, early fault detection systems are integrated into the applications of the pitch and control system. Moreover, all applications undergo intensive stress testing, in order to identify potential failure risks before offshore deployment and to guarantee the corrosion resistance of individual components: This includes shock and vibration tests, climatic chamber tests and salt spray tests.

SSB Wind Systems will be presenting its most recent development for offshore wind energy at the EWEA Offshore 2011 in Amsterdam: a distribution cabinet with integrated switching and control technology for offshore turbines up to 5 MW. This product series is, of course, equipped with the same tried-and-tested safety technology specially designed by SSB Wind Systems for use in harsh environments. Additionally, it has undergone the same extensive stress testing as all the systems produced by the company.

 “With our presentation at the EWEA Offshore 2011, we further underline our longstanding expertise in the area of offshore wind energy, which we have been able to systematically enhance as a result of our affiliation with the US Group, Emerson. In this regard, we profit from a large number of synergy effects, an intensive know-how transfer and, last but not least, from the experience of Emerson in the field of process engineering for the equipment of offshore projects for gas and oil production. As a result of our speed and flexibility as a medium-sized company, together with the financial backing of Emerson – a Group with international operations and a current sales volume of more than 24 billion US dollars – we continue to be a very reliable partner for our customers in ongoing and prospective offshore wind energy projects throughout the world,” explains Gisbert Schulze, CEO of SSB Wind Systems.

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Offshore WIND staff, December 01, 2011; Image: ssbwindsystems