The Andalucía II offshore substation topside built for the 714MW East Anglia One wind farm left Navantia’s Puerto Real shipyard in the Spanish province of Cádiz on Saturday, 4 August, Iberdrola said.
The substation topside, officially handed over to Iberdrola in early July, is under tow onboard the 122-metre barge, AMT Commander.
The Andalucía II is expected to complete its journey of around 2,500 kilometres to the UK in about seven days, with the installation at the site planned for late August or early September. Iberdrola did not say if the substation’s jacket foundation, also built by Navantia, left the shipyard.
The offshore substation will collect the electricity generated by the wind farm’s 102 wind turbines and transform the voltage from 66kV to 220kV before feeding the electricity to the UK grid via an export cable.
According to Iberdrola, Andalucía II is the largest alternating current offshore substation ever built.
The substation includes design innovations proposed by Iberdrola with which a more compact structure weighing 3,900 tons was achieved in order to allow its installation by a ship specialized for the offshore wind sector.
Located some 45 kilometres southeast of Lowestoft, East Anglia One saw the first twelve of the 102 wind turbine foundations installed in late July. During the next few months, the rest of the wind farm’s components will also be installed, including jackets and piles, before the installation of the 7MW wind turbines starts, Iberdrola said.
The wind farm is expected to come into operation in 2020.