South Fork Wind Onshore Cable System All Done

May 16, 2023, by Adnan Durakovic

The onshore cable system for the South Fork Wind, New York’s first offshore wind farm under construction, has been completed.

Crews have demobilized all equipment from the project’s cable route and completed restoration, including “edge to edge” repaving of the Town roads and reseeding of the grassy shoulders, Ørsted and Eversource, the owners and developers of the 132 MW wind farm, said.

”The completion of South Fork Wind’s onshore cable installation marks an important milestone for this historic project,” said Jennifer Garvey, Head of Market Strategy, New York, for Ørsted Americas.

”We want to thank the East Hampton community for their support and cooperation as we completed this work over the last 15 months. Now that we’re done, the only evidence of the onshore cable in the roads is fresh pavement and several manhole covers.”

The delivery of South Fork Wind’s export cable system was performed by both Long Island’s Haugland Group, which led the installation of the duct bank system, and LS Cable, which installed and jointed the onshore cables with support from Long Island’s Elecnor Hawkeye. Work will conclude this summer on the project’s onshore substation, off Cove Hollow Road.

”LS Cable Systems America, Inc. was honored to have contributed to the installation of the 138kV and 69kV export cable for New York’s first offshore wind farm,” said Kyeho Jon, President of LS Cable Systems America, Inc.

”We want to thank our local partners Elecnor Hawkeye and the approximately 20 New York union workers that worked alongside us and the South Fork Wind team to successfully complete this step of construction, which is critical to connecting the wind farm to the local grid.”

The onshore export cable work created more than 100 union jobs for Long Island skilled trades workers, including heavy equipment operators, electricians, lineworkers, and local delivery drivers. New York companies provided approximately 90 per cent of the total goods and services.

”We’re proud to have worked together with Long Island-based companies and New York union workers, whose hard work helped us complete the onshore export cable scope on time and before the summer months start in East Hampton,” said Peter Rooney, Vice President of Offshore Wind Construction and Execution at Eversource Energy.

”Completing this work is a critical step forward to connecting New York’s first offshore wind farm directly with the East Hampton electric grid later this year, which will result in approximately 70,000 New York homes being powered by clean, renewable energy.”

South Fork Wind is now in its offshore construction phase, first with work to install the project’s 68-nautical mile submarine cable from its landfall below Wainscott Beach, in East Hampton, to the wind farm site roughly 35 miles east of Montauk, N.Y. Cable laying is underway.

South Fork Wind is on track to be the first completed utility-scale offshore wind farm in US federal waters, with the project expected to be operational by the end of 2023.

The project will be New York’s first offshore wind farm and will power approximately 70,000 New York homes each year with clean, offshore wind energy.

The wind farm will comprise twelve 11 MW Siemens Gamesa turbines installed at the project site some 19 miles southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island, and some 35 miles east of Montauk Point, New York.

The turbine installation is scheduled to start this summer.