The substation at the heart of the 389 MW West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm has been installed, say the project's developers.
Dong Energy and ScottishPower Renewables say that completion of the offshore substation in the east Irish Sea is a major milestone for the wind farm project and also marks the official start of the project's offshore construction phase.
The offshore substation was fabricated earlier this year and the installation was complete in two phases. The 108-turbine wind farm will be completed in 2014, said Dong Energy in a statement.
The substation is positioned within the 67 km2 wind farm site and will be linked to the 3.6 MW turbines via a series of inter-array cables. Two export cables will then carry electricity ashore to an onshore substation at Heysham, where the wind farm will be connected to the UK's national grid.
"The successful installation of the substation was a major engineering achievement," said Charlie Jordan, ScottishPower Renewables Project Director. "The entire kit is bespoke, designed to suit the specific project requirements at the West of Duddon Sands site."
The foundations and transition pieces for the wind turbines will start to be installed on site over the coming months, said Dong Energy in May.
In April Dong announced that the London Array offshore wind farm off the coast of southeast England had achieved full power. Dong also recently said that it has completed the installation of all 111 wind turbines at Anholt, Denmark's largest offshore wind farm.
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