The Siem Barracuda vessel at sea

Cable Works at Moray East in Full Swing

Inter-array cable testing and termination will start at the Moray East offshore wind farm around 11 November, with the first of the two campaigns for this work scheduled to commence then.

Siem Barracuda; Photo: Siem Offshore Contractors (archive)

The testing and termination works will be carried out from the wind turbines and offshore substation platforms at the project site some 22 kilometres off the Aberdeenshire coast in Scotland, with the personnel and equipment to be based on the Siem Barracuda vessel.

The overall work scope for these works will be carried out in two campaigns, the first one commencing around 11 November and taking place until 23 January 2021, and the second one beginning around 4 April next year and running until mid-June.

Furthermore, cable protection operations on the export cables are expected to start around 16 November, when the Flinstone vessel will start rock dumping work along the export cable routes.

All three export cables for Moray East have been laid and pulled in by mid-October by the cable laying vessel NKT Victoria.

So far, 54 jacket foundations have been installed at the project site, after the installation vessel Seajacks Scylla began the campaign in early July.

The offshore wind farm will comprise 100 MHI Vestas 9.5 MW wind turbines and three Siemens Energy offshore transformer modules (OTMs), all installed on jacket foundations.

All OTM jackets and topsides have been in place since mid-September.

The 950 MW Moray East, scheduled to be fully operational in 2022, is being developed by Moray Offshore Windfarm East Ltd (MOWEL), a joint venture company owned by Ocean Winds (56.6%) Diamond Green Limited (33.4%), and CTG (10%).