The North Sea wind farm Trianel Windpark Borkum is now connected to the grid. The first turbines are now undergoing test operation, and normal operation of the entire wind farm is scheduled to begin in the summer.
The first purely communal offshore wind park in Europe is generating its first electricity. The first turbine at Trianel Windpark Borkum went into operation in early February. "The permanent power connection to the mainland via TenneT's DolWin alpha substation was successfully established on 23 December 2014, and the first turbine has now begun test operation," said Klaus Horstick, Managing Director of Trianel Windkraftwerk Borkum GmbH & Co. KG. The offshore wind farm, which consists of 40 wind turbines, is located approximately 45 km off the coast of the North Sea island of Borkum. Construction work on the wind farm was completed in mid-2014. The grid connection was postponed by the transmission system operator multiple times, delaying the power connection until the turn of the year. In addition to the municipal utility network Trianel, 33 city and regional utility companies from Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland are involved in the project.
The 40 wind turbines will now be put into operation together with the manufacturer Areva Wind. The type M5000 turbines, each of which has a capacity of 5 MW, will be successively activated. "We hope the weather will be good and we can complete the commissioning work on time, so that we can transition from test operation to normal operation in the summer," Horstick said.
The Norwegian special vessel Aker Wayfarer was chartered to perform the commissioning work on the individual turbines. The 157-metre-long ship is equipped with two heavy-duty cranes and has up to ten technicians on board, in addition to the crew.
Katharina Garus
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