Construction works at London Array Offshore Wind Farm are complete and the wind farm is operational. However, some remedial construction works are required.
Due to the long term essential maintenance, the wind turbine D20, located on the west side of the wind farm, has a 500m safety exclusion zone in place from the 8th September until further notice.
Safety Exclusion Zones remain in operation to November 2014. This means an enforceable 50m safety zones from each turbine and 500m safety zones from a construction vessel will be in operation for this period.
Until November 2014 an advisory 100m safety zone should be observed around each turbine and offshore substation due to the risk of exposures of array cable ends at foundations whilst remedial works are ongoing.
Cable reburial is required at some locations and care should be taken within the wind farm site to avoid snagging array cables. Although not expected, natural seabed variation may reduce the depth of burial over buried cables without London Array’s immediate knowledge. Snagging cables not only pose a risk to health and safety, but could also cause a serious risk of damage to wind farm assets.
London Array, the world’s largest operational offshore wind farm, comprises 175 Siemens’ turbines totaling 630 MW in capacity. It is located 20 km off the Kent coast in the outer Thames Estuary.
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Source: KIS-ORCA, September 30, 2014; Image: London Array