Work Starts on Sunrise Wind Onshore Substation

July 25, 2023, by Adnan Memija

The construction of the onshore substation has begun for the Sunrise Wind farm, located off the coast of Long Island, New York, including work at the laydown staging areas.

Sunrise Wind’s transmission system will comprise a subsea export cable that will have a length of 100 miles (161 kilometres) to connect the wind farm’s offshore substation to the grid connection point on land in Holbrook, New York.

The HVDC system consists of two converter stations, one offshore and an onshore substation.

The offshore converter station will collect the 66 kV alternating current (AC) power generated by the wind turbines through an inter-array cable system and transform it to 320 kV DC for transmission through the subsea export cable to the onshore converter station at Holbrook on Long Island. The onshore substation will then convert the power back to AC to feed it into the distribution grid.

The HVDC system will be delivered by a consortium between Siemens Energy and Aker Solutions, with Siemens Energy responsible for delivering the system on a turnkey basis and providing onshore civil work in partnership with local companies, and Aker Solutions contracted to deliver the offshore platform which consists of a steel jacket substructure, and a topside platform deck housing the electrical equipment.

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The wind farm project, which has the potential capacity to power nearly 600,000 homes, is being developed as a partnership between Ørsted and Eversource.

In November last year, the New York State Public Service Commission approved a transmission line that will deliver electricity from the project to the existing electrical grid in New York State.

At 924 MW, the proposed Sunrise Wind farm located in federal waters is the largest offshore wind farm yet that would be connected to New York’s electric grid.

Construction of the 17-mile onshore transmission route will begin later this year, according to Sunrise Wind.

New York State selected Sunrise Wind, located more than 30 miles east of Montauk Point, as part of NYSERDA’s inaugural competitive 2018 offshore wind solicitation.