Siemens has installed what it believes is the largest offshore converter platform anywhere in the world for the SylWin1 DC link in the North Sea. This milestone, announced on 21July, was achieved shortly after the company completed HelWin2, its third grid
connection platform for the Dutch-German transmission grid operatorTenneT.
SylWin1, with a capacity of 864 MW, will transmit the wind power produced by the three North Sea wind farms Dan Tysk, Butendiek and Sandbank to land. The platform and base frame weighs 25 000 tons. Siemens says that with dimensions of 83 x 56 x 26 metres it is the largest converter platform installed to date worldwide.
SylWin1 is Siemens' fourth platform for TenneT in the North Sea. The other three platforms erected by Siemens are HelWin2 platform (690 MW) 35 km north of the island of Helgoland, also completed this month; HelWin1 platform (576 MW), installed in August 2013 and the BorWin2 platform (800 MW) completed in April 2014 northwest of the island of Borkum.
The SylWin1, HelWin1 and BorWin2 platforms were manufactured by Nordic Yards under contract from Siemens, while HelWin2 was constructed by the Dutch company Heerema. Subsea and land-based cables for all of the projects were supplied by the Italian cable specialist Prysmian.
The four platforms are expected to begin commercial operation successively over the second half of 2014 and the first half of 2015.
A fifth grid connection, BorWin3 (900 MW) was ordered this year and is scheduled for commissioning in 2019. Petrofac, a general contractor active in the oil and gas industry, is responsible for the design, manufacture, transport and installation of the BorWin3 platform.
Photo: SylWin1 during construction (credit: Siemens)
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