Nexans Installs First Beatrice Export Cable

Nexans’ cable laying vessel Nexans Skagerrak has completed the laying and burial of the first 70-kilometer 220kV export cable which will connect the 588MW Beatrice offshore wind farm to the Scottish grid.

Nexans started installing the first of two export cables for the Beatrice offshore wind farm at the end of September.

In May last year, the company won a contract for cable works on the wind farm together with Siemens, who is in charge of supplying, installing and commissioning the wind farm’s turbines.

The Beatrice offshore wind farm, located in the Outer Moray Firth off Scotland, will consist of 84 Siemens 7MW wind turbines and two Siemens Offshore Transformer Modules (OTMs), all placed on top of jacket foundations.

Seaway Heavy Lifting (SHL) has just completed the piling works, with 24 jacket foundations already installed and the installation of the remaining ones underway.

SHL and Siem Offshore Services kicked off the inter-array installation in early November.

The first Siemens Gamesa wind turbines are scheduled to be installed in summer 2018, with the wind farm expected to be commissioned by the end of 2019.

Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL), the owner and developer of the wind farm, is a joint venture partnership between SSE (40%), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (35%) and Red Rock Power Ltd. (25%).