Offshore wind O&M calls in Germany flood tender platforms

Several tenders for services in the offshore wind sector have been published over the last few days in Germany, including those from two offshore wind farm operators looking for maintenance work on four of their projects.

The contract notices from the two German operators – seeking annual wind turbine maintenance and maintenance work on offshore substations – are just a few of the many tenders now open for various O&M services for existing offshore wind farms in Germany.

Our sister site OffshoreWIND.biz reported on 22 June that Nordsee One GmbH issued a contract notice for works related to the exchange of major turbine components at the 332 MW Nordsee One offshore wind farm in the German North Sea.

DanTysk Sandbank Offshore Wind GmbH & Co. KG has also opened a tender for O&M services for the DanTysk and Sandbank offshore wind farms in Germany, which will come under a new joint operating strategy. The wind farm operator has also just awarded contracts for air and water crew transfer services for the two offshore wind farms.

Among the new notices for O&M offshore wind work currently sought in Germany, EWE is seeking annual wind turbine maintenance work on two offshore wind farms, while EnBW is looking for these services for two offshore substations in the Baltic Sea.

Through Deutsche Offshore-Testfeld- und Infrastruktur (DOTI), EWE is procuring annual maintenance on six 5 MW wind turbines (Senvion) at the Alpha Ventus offshore wind farm.

Commissioned on 27 April 2010, Alpha Ventus is Germany’s first and oldest operating offshore wind farm. The project comprises six Adwen M5000 turbines and six Senvion 5M turbines located 45 kilometres north of the island of Borkum in the North Sea.

The wind farm is owned by EWE with a 47.5 per cent stake and RWE and Vattenfall, each with a 26.25 per cent share.

The offshore wind farm operator is also seeking the same services for the 30 Siemens Gamesa wind turbines, each with an output of 3.78 MW, at the Riffgat offshore wind farm.

Riffgat, built by EWE in 2013, is the first commercially operated wind farm in the German North Sea. The 113.4 MW project comprises 30 SWT-3.6-120 Siemens wind turbines installed some 15 kilometres to the north-west of the German island of Borkum.

The contract for Alpha Ventus will be in effect for twelve months, starting in January 2022, and has an option for a one-year renewal up to two times. The O&M contract for Riffgat will have a duration of three years, also as of January 2022, and could be extended by a year up to two times.

Meanwhile, EnBW is also tendering maintenance services, but for the high-voltage components of the offshore substations at the EnBW Baltic 1 and EnBW Baltic 2 offshore wind farms in the German Baltic Sea.

The work on the high-voltage components must be carried out in the transmission system operator’s annual shutdown weeks. The scope of services covers high-voltage switchgear (fields), medium voltage switchgear, Petersen coil, compensation choke, transformer for own use, and the Star point generator.

The selected service provider will be awarded a framework agreement with EnBW for a term of four years, starting in 2022. 

The offshore substations are the hearts of the connections of the Baltic 1 and Baltic 2 offshore wind farms to the German grid, with 50Hertz being the transmission system operator in charge of the grid links.

The 48.3 MW EnBW Baltic 1 offshore wind farm is Germany’s first commercial scale offshore wind farm and has been operational since May 2011. The 288 MW EnBW Baltic 2 has been running since September 2015.