At its harbour location Nordenham, Rhenus Midgard delivered, stored and handled about 30 km ofsubmarine cables on behalf of Nexans in May. The submarine cables of the world’s leading manufacturer in the cable industry will connect a part of the 111 wind turbines of Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm Anholt. With this project Rhenus Midgard expands their logistics services into the offshore industry.
The total of nearly 1,000 tons of heavy submarine cables arrived at the port of Nordenham via freight railway. Railway service provider NIAG completed one part of the Rhenus railway transport, which took place on the production facility in Hannover. NIAG belongs to the corporate group of Rhenus.
Following the discharge Rhenus employees stored the material in two so-called cable cores of iron, before they were transferred to the laying barge “Stemat 82″in the end of May. Cutting the wire strands and the relocation of the individual lengths on the ocean floor was made from the laying vessel.
Located off the Danish coast, Anholt wind farm will provide 400 megawatts of electrical power and produce electricity for the equivalent of 400,000 homes, when completed. This represents four percent of Danish electricity consumption.
“We have made the traditional coal handling port Nordenham fit for the offshore industry and have established ourselves in the niche market of submarine cables logistics in recent years. Nordenham also has a direct rail connection to the quay and a lock-free access to the North Sea,” says Uwe Oppitz , branch Manager of Rhenus Midgard Nordenham , the advantages of the port facility in Lower Saxony.
“Currently, we store cable reels on our site for other customers in the offshore sector and take over the loading and unloading of submarine cables and tools such as concrete mattresses,” said Uwe Oppitz . For eight years, Rhenus Nordenham has been managing a pier for handling the submarine cables.
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Offshore WIND staff, July 5, 2012; Image: Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke GmbH