The world’s largest offshore wind farm development
Hornsea Project One is located 120km off the Yorkshire coast and covers approximately 407 square kilometres. Hornsea Project One has a total capacity of up to 1.2GW, which will make it the world’s largest offshore wind farm once completed. The wind farm will be able to meet the electricity needs of around 800,000 UK homes. Ramboll’s scope of work comprised engineering services related to the conceptual development, detailed design and technical assistance during tendering, fabrication and installation of the substation.A consequence of moving further offshore
The requirement for an offshore reactive compensation substation is a direct consequence of wind farms moving further offshore. The Hornsea One offshore wind farm will be located in the UK, approximately 120 km (75 mi) off the Yorkshire coast. The 1,2 GW wind farm is expected to host 150-240 turbines, three HVAC substations and the reactive compensation substation. To reduce the power loss in the export cables, the reactive compensation substation is required midway of the export cable between the wind farm and landfall.
How to integrate reactive compensation in design
The high voltage set-up on the platform is the first of its kind on an offshore substation. Hence the project posed a number of interesting challenges for Ramboll’s team of offshore specialist engineers, who investigated a number of solutions on how to best integrate the three shunt reactors that are used to stabilize the voltage during load variations. This included assessing different configurations of high voltage gas insulated switchgear. Moreover, Ramboll designed the topside layout to accommodate for utilities, equipment, SCADA systems, cable deck, laydown area, helideck and emergency accommodation area etc.