Moray East offshore construction ramps up

Cable laying vessel Living Stone has started the first inter-array cable installation campaign at the 950 MW Moray East wind farm offshore Scotland.

The wind farm will feature 100 66 kV inter-array cables and two offshore substation interconnector cables supplied by JDR Cable System.

The installation campaign will be carried out in three phases. The first campaign started on 29 September and will continue for eight weeks.

Boskalis is in charge of supplying and installing the inter-array cables for the 100-turbine project.

Export Cables

Cable laying vessel NKT Victoria is expected to lay the wind farm’s three export cables by 3 October. Havila Phoenix is burying the cables.

The first export cable made landfall at Inverboyndie in late August.

Cable burial and trenching work is ongoing, with the trenching expected to continue until early November.

This will be followed by a separate campaign to install remedial protection over the cables on any remaining unburied or unprotected sections.

NKT is in charge of delivering and installing the wind farm’s export cables.

Foundations

As of 28 September, 35 out of the 100 turbine jacket foundations were installed at the site some 22 kilometres off the Aberdeenshire coast by Seajacks Scylla.

The wind farm’s three Offshore Transformer Modules (OTMs) have been in place since mid-September.

DEME is the EPCI contractor for the wind farm’s turbine foundations and three offshore substation foundations, as well as for the transport and installation of the OTMs.

Moray East will feature 100 MHI Vestas 9.5 MW wind turbines scheduled for full commissioning in 2022.

Moray Offshore Windfarm East Ltd (MOWEL), the developer of the project, is a joint venture company owned by Diamond Green Limited (33.4%), Ocean Winds (56.6%) and CTG (10%).