Local subcontractors benefit from new wind farm

Several million pounds worth of contracts have been granted to UK companies by Siemens in the construction of an onshore transmission infrastructure substation for the new Moray East Offshore Wind Farm.

Construction of the 950MW wind farm began in September 2018 with the main subcontractor for the civil works at the substation south of New Deer, which will be responsible for connecting the project to the National Grid, being BAM Nuthall. In particular, BAM Nuthall will construct foundations for the transformers, shunt reactors, and switch gear equipment as well as an internal road, fence, and internal drainage works.

Additionally, local area firms have been contracted to enact site enabling works ahead of any major construction such as the preparation of the substation site and onshore cable route, as well as the provision of building materials.

The Project Director at Moray East for Siemens Transmission and Distribution, Anwer Amara-Korba stated: “This is one of the largest construction projects in Scotland and it is vital that companies based in the local area get to share in its success.

“It will be a key part of providing clean, sustainable energy for Scotland to meet its low carbon aims, providing enough power for one million homes.”

The Perth based civil engineering company, I & H Brown, will be one of the subcontractors responsible for the enabling work on the onshore substation site while the Thurso based company, JGC Engineering and Technical Services, will fabricate and fit out the high voltage equipment containers which will be shipped out later on in the summer.

Furthermore, Barrier Architectural has been appointed to fabricate a set of containers from its Stockton-on-Tees facility whereas the Preston based company, VolkerInfra, has been contracted to provide and install high voltage onshore cables measuring 35km for the underground cable route that will stretch from Whitehills on the Aberdeenshire coast to New Deer.

The Transmission Infrastructure Package Manager for Moray East, Sarah Graham stated: “The experience and capability of the local supply chain is crucial in delivering the transmission infrastructure required to grid connect the wind farm.”

Siemens itself will be responsible for the complete construction of the onshore substation including construction of three SVC Plus advanced STATCOMs and three offshore substation platform topsides.

The wind farm will have 100 V164 (9.5MW) turbines which will power a substantial 950,000 UK homes.

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