Sassnitz – The substation for the Wikinger Offshore Windfarm has been installed at its permanent base in the Baltic Sea. Engineers contracted by Iberdrola have now completed erecting the three-part construction near the Adlergrund, northeast of Rügen. The offshore substation, christened "Andalucia" in early August in Cadiz, Spain, will be jointly used by Iberdrola and 50Hertz.

All the structural components of the substation were produced at the Navantia dockyards in Cadiz, Spain. The supporting structure, commonly referred to as the jacket, left for the Baltic Sea by barge on 10 August. A few days later, the barge carrying both topsides started its journey to the site in the Baltic Sea over 4,000 kilometres away.

When it reached the location, the six-legged jacket was set on to the foundation piles previously driven into the sea floor. The jacket and the piles were then secured together with special concrete. After the concrete hardened, the two topsides were installed on the jacket and fixed in place. For the installation work of the three transformer platform components, the special crane ship, Oleg Stashnov, spent less than week at the worksite.

After the assembly of the topside was completed, the offshore transformer platform components were commissioned for service. At the same time the cables were laid for the 50Hertz grid connection and the internal cabling taking power from the wind turbines.

The power generated by the Wikinger wind turbines will be collected on the transformer platform and stepped up from 33 kilovolts to 220 kilovolts for transmission over the approximately 90-kilometre-long offshore cable to the 50Hertz Lubmin substation.

For further information, please contact:

Fabian Hoppe, Press Office at the Reichstag for Iberdrola
Tel. +49 30 2061 4130 22, fabian.hoppe@mar-berlin.de

Siegfried Wagner, 50Hertz, Tel. +49 30 5150 3129
Fax +49 30 5150 2199, Mobile +49 173 9106844, siegfried.wagner@50hertz.com