First Moray East OTM starts journey home

Siemens Energy has shipped off the first of the three Offshore Transformer Modules (OTMs) to be installed on the 950 MW Moray East wind farm offshore Scotland.

The first OTM began its journey from the fabricator to be installed at the offshore wind farm some 22 kilometres off the Aberdeenshire coast on 30 June.

The remaining two OTMs will sail out in the following months when the commissioning will take place, Siemens Energy said.

The OTMs, built by Smulders and Engie Fabricom Belgium, will transform the output of the wind turbines from 66 kilovolts (kV) to the transmission voltage of 220kV.

In 2018, Siemens Energy secured the contract to connect the wind farm to the grid and until today Moray East represents the company’s largest UK grid access project.

The scope of supply includes the complete onshore substation including three SVC PLUS (STATCOM) as well as the three offshore substation platform topsides.

In addition, Siemens Energy will install a 35-kilometre underground export cable to the onshore substation at New Deer in Aberdeenshire.

Moray East will comprise 100 MHI Vestas 9.5 MW wind turbines expected to be operational by 2022.