Engineers from ScottishPower Renewables masterminded the departure of one of the world’s largest offshore substations as it set sail this weekend from Cadiz in Southern Spain for its voyage to the German zone of the Baltic Sea.  It will form part of the €1.4 billion Wikinger offshore windfarm. ScottishPower Renewables lead Iberdrola’s global offshore developments from Glasgow and London.

The substation, known as ‘Andalucía’, was built by Navantia at the Puerto Real shipyard. It is the first offshore substation to include two ‘topsides’, as it will also be used by 50Hertz, the electricity system operator in this region of Germany, to support further offshore wind developments. The construction of the substation supported 700 jobs.

The Wikinger offshore wind farm will have an installed power capacity of 350 MW. It will consist of 70 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 5 MW, at a site spanning an area of approximately 34 square kilometres. The project is located in the Baltic Sea, and is scheduled to go online at the end of 2017.

Technical characteristics of the substation:

• 90,000 hours of engineering employed in the design.First offshore substation built with two topsides.
• First offshore substation designed using a six-legged pre-piled jacket.
• Substation with a fully automatic and remotely controlled operating capability.
• The steel structure weighs 4,550 tonnes
• The cables installed will run for 150 kilometres