Nordergründe to Come Online Soon, Offshore Substation In Place

The offshore substation for the Nordergründe offshore wind farm has been installed and the project can now move to final commissioning, after being delayed due to the insolvency proceedings of the transformer platform manufacturer, BVT Bremen.

Wpd, the developer of the 111MW project, postponed the commissioning of the project, initially scheduled for late 2016, after BVT entered insolvency in the third quarter of 2016. The remaining works on the substation were carried out under wpd’s leadership by several sub-contractors, with GE/Alstom delivering the HV/MV equipment, Muehlhan doing the coating, and Stahlbau Nord finalising the steel works.

“We were able to fully implement the plan for further construction of the transformer platform, which was decided in November of 2016, and we were able to install the transformer platform almost to the day,” said Achim Berge Olsen, managing director of OWP Nordergründe GmbH & Co. KG and of wpd offshore GmbH. “I’m happy to say that we have advanced the project by a giant step and that we are now able to prepare for final commissioning.”

The more than 2,000-tonne platform is now sitting on a monopile foundation at the wind farm site, situated 1 km to the North-East of the island of Wangerooge.

At the end of December 2016, MPI Enterprise completed the installation of Senvion 6.2M126 turbines at the Nordergründe offshore wind farm.

The wind farm is deemed the first German offshore project for which the work has been exclusively delivered by German companies.

Financial close of the projects had been completed in June of 2015 with the participation of European Investment Bank and KfW IPEX. Besides wpd, John Laing Group plc and Gothaer Insurance Group are acting as equity providers.