The Netherlands-based Observator Group has won a contract to supply a Helideck Monitoring System for the Borkum Riffgrund 2 offshore substation in the German North Sea.
The system, featuring Biral’s VPF-730 Visibility and Present Weather sensor, will be installed on the substation to measure all weather conditions during helicopter landing and take-off operations in order to ensure flight and passenger safety.
Eric Hurkmans, Sales Manager at Observator Group, said: “We met Biral many years ago as fellow exhibitors and since then have been ‘friends in business’. Observator has chosen to use Biral because their visibility sensors have proven to be accurate and long-lasting within marine environments and present weather can also be determined using their impressive range. Over the years, we have used many sensors from Biral across a variety of projects and are very happy to continue using them in the future.”
The 450MW Borkum Riffgrund 2 is being developed by DONG Energy some 34 kilometres north of the island of Borkum.
DONG awarded HSM Offshore with an EPC contract for the Borkum Riffgrund 2 high voltage AC transformer platform.
HSM Offshore in turn contracted Iv-Oil & Gas for the engineering and procurement of the Borkum Riffgrund 2 offshore substation.
Iv-Oil & Gas is handling the detailed engineering and procurement of the utility systems for the topside, while Iv-Consult is producing the shop drawings for both the jacket and the topside.
The platform, which consists of a 2,500-tonne topside and a 1,700-tonne jacket, will be installed in the south-eastern part of the North Sea, approximately 38 kilometres off Borkum.
Once operational, the platform will collect and transform the energy generated by the wind farm. The high voltage current will then be exported to the DolWin alpha HVDC Converter Platform via 30-kilometre long export cables.
The wind farm will comprise 56 MHI Vestas V164-8.0 MW wind turbines and is expected to be fully commissioned in 2019.