Siemens Energy is also supplying 75 of its 3.6 MW wind turbines for the offshore wind farm.
Construction is scheduled to start in late summer this year, with first generation planned for 2012.
The offshore wind farm will be installed 8 km offshore, near Skegness, Lincolnshire on the east coast of the UK.
Siemens will supply an offshore substation platform, which will bundle the power generated by the wind turbines before it is transported via high-voltage cable to the mainland.
The substations
The substation will be equipped with two 240 MVA transformers as well as 132 kV high-voltage and 33 kV medium-voltage switchgear. The requisite protection and instrumentation and control equipment will also be installed on the platform.
The 33 kV from the wind turbines will be ramped up to a transmission voltage of 132 kV. High-voltage subsea cables will transport the power to the grid feed-in point, which is located at the Walpole 400 kV substation near King’s Lynn.
In addition to the offshore substation, an onshore substation is to be supplied, which will be equipped with two 300 MVA power transformers (400/132/13.9 kV), Siemens will install two filters, 132 kV and 400 kV switchgear, and a reactive-power compensation system in order to meet the requirements of the UK power supply network on the quality of the power infeed.
Siemens will use its SVC Plus system, which operates with Siemens’ voltage-sourced converter (VSC) technology and can be continuously controlled with the aid of insulated–gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs).
The central feature of SVC Plus, a refined statcom (static synchronous compensator) is its modular multilevel converter technology, Siemens says.
By contrast with other self-commutated converter topologies, the voltage waveshape produced by SVC Plus is practically sinusoidal by virtue of the multilevel technology. This makes existing low-frequency harmonic filters, found in current solutions unnecessary, and significantly reduces the space requirements for the overall system, the technology giant explains.
Siemens will also prepare the requisite design studies for all of the wind farm’s electrical components and the grid studies to provide evidence of fulfilment of grid connection requirements.