OSS Borkum Riffgrund 2. Image: Ørsted/Matthias Ibeler
On June 25, 2018, Heerema Marine Contractors installed the topside for the offshore substation (OSS) in the German offshore wind farm Borkum Riffgrund 2, using the SSCV Thialf, the world’s largest crane vessel.
Borkum Riffgrund 2 is a project developed by Ørsted and is located about 34 kilometers off the island of Borkum. Heerema was contracted in 2016 for the transport and installation of the offshore substation’s jacket, piles and topside. The EPC contract was awarded to HSM Offshore BV in Schiedam.
A jacket foundation, also constructed by HSM Offshore, was already installed back in July 2017. The substation weighs about 2,500 tonnes and reaches a height of 25 meters. HSM Offshore contracted Dutch engineering company Iv-Oil & Gas for the engineering and procurement of the substation.
Commissioning will start in the next few months after which the platform will transform the electricity from the 56 8MW turbines to the voltage level of the high-voltage grid before being forwarded to the converter station DolWin Gamma by the grid operator TenneT. Full commissioning is planned for 2019. After completion, Borkum Riffgrund 2 has an export capacity of 450 megawatts. This means that around 460,000 German households can be supplied with green energy.
With the wind farms Borkum Riffgrund 1, Gode Wind 1 and 2 already installed in Germany and the future Borkum Riffgrund 2, Ørsted can supply the equivalent of approximately 1.4 million German households with electricity. The company operates offshore wind farms worldwide with a total capacity of around 4.4 gigawatts.
