The first stage of works for the Beatrice offshore wind farm’s export cable is scheduled to start on 13 April at Portgordon, near Buckie, and will include installation of horizontal cable pipes, as well as underwater operations including diving, tunnelling and seabed preparation, according to the developer’s notice to mariners.
Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited (BOWL) plans to install the export cables beneath Portgordon Beach.
Pre-installed horizontal cable pipes need to be installed from the shoreline to an offshore exit point. The pipes are installed using a micro-tunnelling machine pushed through the ground beneath the seabed. At the exit points approximately 420-450m offshore, the removal of the tunnelling tool and excavation works associated with this operation will take place.
During this period, diving and underwater operations will be conducted. The works are expected to take place until 30 June.
The vessels that will carry out the operations are the jack-up barge Haven Seariser 1, multicat work vessel Forth Constructor and the CTV Skua.
The GBP 2.6bn offshore wind project is owned by SSE (40%), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) (35%) and Red Rock Power Ltd. (25%).
The wind farm is being developed with a tier 1 supply chain comprising SHL, Subsea 7, Nexans and Siemens, and is scheduled to be fully operational by 2019.