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This is the biggest offshore wind project currently under construction in the world
Iberdrola has successfully installed the Andalusia II substation in the East Anglia One offshore wind farm in the United Kingdom
NI (2018-08-31) La subestación Andalucía II, instalada con éxito en East Anglia One - The biggest offshore AC substation is now in place at the wind farm being built by Iberdrola in British waters in the North Sea, after travelling 1,333 nautical miles (2,468 kilometres)
- Navantia and some 30 supporting companies from the Bay of Cádiz were involved in its construction, which provided work for up to 600 people at peak times
Iberdrola has successfully installed the Andalusia II substation in position in the East Anglia One offshore wind farm, in British waters, the biggest project of its type currently under construction in the world.
The substation left the shipyard in Puerto Real (Cadiz) in early August and travelled 1,333 nautical miles (2,468 kilometres) on board a barge towed by the cargo barge AMT Commander without incident.
Andalusia II is the core of the Iberdrola East Anglia One offshore wind farm, with an installed power capacity of 714 MW, in the North Sea. Its function will be to collect the electricity produced by 102 wind turbines and transform it from 66 kV to 220 kV. The electricity will then be transmitted along an undersea cable to land.
Andalusia II is the biggest AC offshore substation ever constructed in the world. It features design innovations developed by Iberdrola that make its structure more compact (3,900 metric tons), allowing it to be installed by a vessel specialising in the offshore wind sector.
Over the next 4 months around 60 engineers will work around the clock to complete the installation of the equipment needed to commission the substation.
Renewable electrical power from late 2019.
Charlie Jordan, East Anglia One project director for ScottishPower Renewables, said: “The offshore substation is the single largest and most complex piece of kit that we will build for this project, so it is good to see the structure safely in place. Now we will press on with the electrical work and continue with the installation of the jackets and foundations. Around the middle of next year, we will start installing the towers and the blades, with electricity being generated before the end of 2019. It won’t be long now until the windfarm is making an important contribution to the UK’s clean energy goals.”
East Anglia One, a project occupying 300 square kilometres with an overall investment in the region of €3 billion, is expected to be fully operational by 2020 to meet the annual clean energy demands of almost 600,000 British homes.
Iberdrola’s renewable power plant has become an economic driver for numerous Spanish companies. One example of this was the German Wikinger offshore wind farm, for which Iberdrola was supported by Navantia and some thirty local auxiliary companies in the construction of an essential part of the offshore wind farm, the substation.
The delivery of this unit, achieved in the agreed-upon time after 16 months of work, allowed the creation of an average of 450 jobs which, at peak work times, rose to 600 people.
Having pioneered the move into onshore wind-powered generation, Iberdrola has decided also to spearhead the development of the renewable energy source with the best growth prospects: offshore wind, in which it already has projects in operation.
Two wind farms are currently in operation — West of Duddon Sands, in the Irish Sea and Wikinger in the Baltic Sea, and a further 7,200 MW are under development in the North Sea, the Baltic, the English Channel (offshore Brittany) and off the US Atlantic coast.
About Iberdrola
Iberdrola is a global energy leader, the number one producer of wind power and one of the world’s biggest electric utilities by market capitalisation. The group is present in numerous countries and supplies power to around 100 million people, mainly in Spain, the United Kingdom (ScottishPower), the United States (Avangrid), Brazil (Neoenergia) and Mexico. With a workforce of 34,000 and assets in excess of €110 billion, it posted revenues of €31.263 billion euros and net profit of €2.804 billion euros in 2017.
Iberdrola is leading the energy transition towards a sustainable model through its investments in energy from renewable sources, smart grids, large-scale energy storage and digital transformation in order to offer its customers the most advanced products and services. Thanks to its commitment to clean energy, Iberdrola is one of the companies with the lowest emissions and an international benchmark for its contribution to the fight against climate change and for the sustainability of the planet. Iberdrola is listed on numerous international sustainability indices, among them the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE4Good, and it is considered one of the most sustainable electricity utilities in the world.