| Kentish Flats |  |
Helping complete a major, shallow-water offshore wind energy project under a tight deadline |
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| Principal Sponsor: - Vattenfall Group/Elsam Our Customer: Vestas/NEG Micon Completion Date: 2005 The Project: One of the UK's flagship wind development projects is the Kentish Flats Wind Farms. Global Marine Systems laid the sub-sea cables for this project, which in its lifetime is estimated to reduce UK carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 223,000 tonnes. Why Global Marine Systems? Global Marine Systems was brought for its expertise in sub-marine cable installation and maintenance. The Challenges: The main technical challenge was determining how to lay the power cables in the site's shallow waters. The project was also on a tight deadline to protect the spawning ground of the local herring population. Global Marine Systems Delivered: In Phase One, the three export cables from the turbines to the shore were installed. Each cable was 8-10km long, weighed 30 kilos per metre and reached one of the three turbine groups. Because of the shallow water, Global Marine Systems deliberately grounded the cable laying barge at low tide on a number of occasions for continued operations during high tides. Phase Two involved the installation of the infield cables between the turbines. The 30 turbines were connected by Global Marine Systems in three blocks of ten, daisy-chain style. Each block of ten is connected to an export cable. These cables were surface laid, then buried using Global Marine's Otter, a subsea ROV optimised for shallow water installation. Resources Deployed: Otter - a tracked ROV optimised for shallow water. Hi-Plough - was used for the burial of the export cables. Other - Also used two chartered barges as needed: Pontra Maris, and Wind  |
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Facts & Features
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| What's being connected | Three blocks of 10- V90-3.0 MW turbines, connected in-field and to shore |
| Connections | Export and array |
| Type of cable | Export: 3 x 500mm2 Cu conductors + an integrated optical fibre cable Array: 3 x 185mm2 Cu conductors + an integrated optical fibre cable |
| Cable manufacturer | AEI |
| Voltage of cable | 33kV |
| Energy output | 90MW hours of each year |
