Global Tech I offshore transformer station successfully installed

Its job will be to gather the power from the 80 wind turbines in the park and transform it from 30 to 155 kV. Furthermore, it will serve as a logistical base.
Installation process
The wind farm’s transformer station, weighing 9,000 tonnes, was delivered by the consortium Alstom Grid GmbH and Keppel Verolme BV. The steel structure of the platform was constructed in Rotterdam by Keppel Verolme and the electrical equipment was installed by Alstom Grid directly at the Dutch shipyard. Two seagoing tugboats took three days to tow the floating, closed-steel body of the transformer station from Rotterdam to the construction zone. In total, four tugboats were needed for positioning. The legs of the support structure, which were affixed to the body and towered above it during the voyage, were then descended to the seabed. The suction cans are mounted as the four feet of the supporting legs. With a height of 9.5m and a diameter of 11m each, the steel cylinders were first pressed into the seabed using only the weight of the platform. In the next step, vacuum pumps drew out the seawater in the cylinders from above, thereby producing a negative pressure that pulled in the seabed from beneath the suction cans. This is an environmentally sound method, because no ramming of piles is necessary, yet the support structure is buried deeply in the seabed, securely anchoring the transformer station. In a third step, the station was jacked up 20m above the sea surface and locked into place. Arjen Schampers, Technical Managing Director of Global Tech I Offshore Wind GmbH said: “We adapted a method from the oil and gas industry to install our transformer station and this is the first time this technique has been used in the North Sea. Even when offshore wind power is pioneering work, this example clearly shows there is still much technological experience we are able to call upon in this new industry.”