In October 2011, the connection from National Grid’s substation to the Canterbury-Kemsley 400kV overhead power lines was completed, so the National Grid’s substation is now operational and the construction compound is being dismantled.
In January 2012, London Array Ltd expects to connect the National Grid substation to the London Array substation.
This will power their offshore commissioning activities until the turbines start generating electricity.
In November, they finished most of the Phase One works on the London Array substation at Cleve Hill near Graveney, including its transformers, pods and harmonic filters, so the substation is now operational. As the site has moved into its operational phase, some personnel may need to access the site outside of the usual working hours. All the remaining construction based activities will continue to operate under the agreed site working hours and traffic management plan.
Phase Two ahead of schedule
Alongside the operational work on the substation, Phase Two of the civil works has been brought forward and began in November 2011. The works will continue until midsummer 2012. As part of this work, two large concrete pours need to be completed. The first pour has been scheduled to take place after Graveney Primary School has broken up for Christmas.
The second pour is scheduled for late January or early February.
They will need to arrange for deliveries of concrete from 7.30am, but won’t permit HGVs to pass the school at peak pick-up and drop-off times. The concrete pours are weather dependent, if a period of bad weather occurs the dates could be rescheduled.
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Offshore WIND staff, December 21, 2011; Image: londonarray