Second Race Bank OSS En Route to UK

The second offshore substation for the Race Bank offshore wind farm set sail to the UK on 5 March, ENGIE Fabricom and Iemants reported.

The 573MW Race Bank, situated some 27km off the coast of Norfolk, consists of 91 Siemens 6MW turbines and two substations. The first substation, also built by the ENGIE Fabricom/ Iemants consortium, was installed in August 2016.

Last month, the second substation (Race Bank 1) was removed from its base at the production site in Hoboken, Belgium, and loaded out onto a pontoon. On Sunday morning, the mooring lines were removed and the vessel could sail away.

Race Bank is scheduled to be fully operational in 2018.

DONG Energy has contracted ENGIE Fabricom and Iemants to build five substations, whereby ENGIE Fabricom is in charge of the entire construction and commissioning on site, while Iemants is responsible for the steel construction work on the five substations.

The first of the five substations, the one for Burbo Bank Extension, left the site in June last year, and Race Bank 2 – which was installed at the site first – was fitted out in August 2016.

Following Race Bank 1, the substations for Walney 3 & 4 (Walney Extension) will also depart from Hoboken this month.

In 2012, the ENGIE Fabricom/Iemants consortium supplied two substations for London Array, and the substation for West of Duddon Sands in 2013. In 2014, the consortium supplied two offshore substations for the Gode Wind 1 & 2 wind farm.