A Petrofac-Siemens consortium is to provide the BorWin3 offshore wind farm grid connection in the German North Sea under a contract with TenneT.
Petrofac will be responsible for the construction and offshore installation of the BorWin3 platform, which will house a Siemens high voltage direct current (HVDC) station that converts the alternating current produced by the wind turbines to direct current before transmitting it onshore to the German national grid.
The HVDC station will be one of the biggest of its kind with a transmission capacity of 900MW. The platform will be designed as a parent platform, equipped with a helipad and crews' quarters.
An 160km-long grid connection will link several wind farms to the mainland. The BorWin3 link will transport electrical energy via cable over 130km at sea and a further 30km on land to the grid feed-in point in Emden. The direct current will then be converted back into alternating current for further transmission and distribution.
Supply and laying of the cables was tendered separately by TenneT. The start of commercial operation of Borwin3 is scheduled for 2019.
