Walney 3 Substation Heads to the Irish Sea

The Engie Fabricom and Iemants consortium has shipped the first of two offshore substations built for DONG Energy’s 660MW Walney Extension offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea from the construction yard in Hoboken, Belgium.

With a height of 35 metres and weighing 2,900 tonnes, the Walney 3 is the second substation to leave the ENGIE Fabricom site this month after the Race Bank 1 substation, also ordered by DONG Energy.

The substation topside was accompanied by its 48-metre-high jacket foundation that had been assembled on the Iemants site in Vlissingen in the Netherlands. The jacket was transported to Hoboken in late February.

The Walney 4 offshore substation is expected to be shipped out to the installation site later this month, the consortium said.

Located next to the 367.2MW Walney 1 & 2 offshore wind farms off Cumbria, Walney Extension will be the largest wind farm in the world when built. The wind farm is expected to be generating clean electricity by 2019.

The wind farm will consist of 40 8MW MHI Vestas and 47 7MW Siemens wind turbines.

DONG Energy awarded the contract to build five substations to the ENGIE Fabricom/Iemants consortium. 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 and their jacket foundations. The Burbo Bank and Race Bank 2 substations left the yard last year.