Project description:

The Belwind Offshore Energy Windfarm is located on the Blighbank approximately 46-52 kilometer offshore to the west of Zeebrugge in the Belgian Economic Zone of the North sea. The realization of the Belwind project consists of two phases:

• Belwind 1, construction in 2009 – 2010
• Belwind 2 (Nobelwind), construction in 2016 – 2017

Wind farm Belwind 1 consists of 55 turbines, type Vestas V90. The turbines are installed on monopole foundations in a water depth varying from 20 to 37 meters. The turbines are connected by 5 strings of 33kV submarine cables. the produced energy, 55 times 3MW, is collected at the Offshore High Voltage Station (OHVS), where the voltage will be transformed to 150kV. From the OHVS, the energy (165MW in total) will be exported by a submarine cable with a length of 52km to the onshore booster station where the voltage control is regulated. From the booster station, the wind farm is connected to the Belgian national grid of ELIA TSO. Also for the second phase of the Belwind Offshore Windfarm Energy Solutions has been involved for the grid connection of the project. The second phase of the Belwind project, called Nobelwind, has been connected via a previously installed 220 kV export cable with the Northwind OHVS from which the combined power production of wind farms Nobelwind and Northwind is transported via a 220 kV submarine cable to shore. In addition a 33 kV cable has been installed between the Belwind 1 OHVS and the Nobelwind OHVS which enables a back-up connection to link both projects. Windfarm Nobelwind consists of 50 turbines of the type Vestas V112-3.3 MW which are connected via 6 strings of 33 kV submarine cables to the Nobelwind OHVS.

Activities of Energy Solutions:

Energy Solutions delivered a significant contribution to the Belwind 1 project, commissioned by Belwind NV and Nobelwind NV. In the design phase, Energys Solutions contributed to the acquisition of the 150 kv grid connection and the design of the electrical infrastructure of the wind farm. During the construction phase, Energy Solutions supervised the installation of the electrical infrastructure. The following activities have been executed in cooperation with Belwind and Nobelwind:

• Project support during the engineering and tender phase of the electrical infrastructure of the wind farm and support on the interfaces with the wind turbine manufacturer as well the grid operator in Zeebrugge.
• Performing calculations and simulations on load flow, short circuit, and grid compliance.
• Compose the specifications of the Design & Construct contract.
• Support the tender process of the Design & Construct contract.
• Project management as Package Manager Electrical Infrastructure during the construction phase of the project Belwind 1 and Electrical Engineer and cable specialist for the project Belwind 2 (Nobelwind).
• Project support during the construction phase of the project.
• Technical design and support of the monitoring system to acquire the “Green Power certificates”
• Quality checks and en factory acceptance tests of the Offshore High Voltage Stations (OHVS).
• Quality checks and en factory acceptance tests of the 150kV/150kV Onshore Booster Station with an electrical capacity of 185MVA.
• Quality checks and en factory acceptance tests of the 52 kilometer 150kV submarine cable
• Quality checks and factory acceptance tests of the 2 x 50 kilometer 33kV submarine cables, connecting the wind turbines to the OHVS.
• Quality checks and factory acceptance tests of the 3 kilometer 150kV land cable.
• Testing and supervision of the commisioning of the electrical infrastructure.
• After the wind farm Belwind 2 (Nobelwind) has commenced operation early 2017, a cable failure occurred in April 2017 in one of the 33 kV submarine cables. Energy Solutions as cable expert has been involved in the analyses of the root cause of the cable failure and in the process to get the cable repair performed.

Interesting websites:

http://parkwind.be/