In the Baltic Sea, a wind farm comprising 64 wind generators has been built. The water depths vary from 20 to 40 metres.
The project was started in August of 2013 and was successfully completed in April 2014. All hydraulic installations have been carried out using Hydrauvision Rental equipment.
When the wind generators are placed on the tripods, it is important to anchor these firmly into the seabed. In addition, they should be perfectly level. To ensure this, Hydrauvision has developed an advanced tracking system. Roland Picavet, Commercial Manager, explained: ‘This is a fine example of the synergy that exists between the different Hydrauvision divisions. Main contractor Hydrauvision Rental – supplier of winches and powerpacks – has contracted out parts of the job to Hydrauvision Services and Hydrauvision Piping, who carried out the installation. The Rental fleet, of course, has been developed and manufactured by Hydrauvision Systems.”
Picavet explained the workings of the tracking system: ‘The system consists of a driven frame, also called a template, which is suspended from the jackup by means of cable winches. During transport, the template is pulled up against the bottom of the jackup by means of three 80-ton winches. Three uprights precisely fit into three recesses in the bottom of the jackup. To fix the template during transport, each winch is secured with a pulling force of between 30 and 70 ton, depending on the position.’
Hydrauvision Rental powerpacks
Once on location, the template is lowered to the bottom of the sea by means of the tracking system for the three winches. From the control room, finetuning is carried out for each winch in order to achieve a perfectly horizontal position of the template. The template itself is provided with a levelling system with sixteen under-water cameras to monitor the whole process. The whole system contains two ring lines with hydraulic oil. Ring line 1, which operates the winches, is powered by two 200-kW diesel-driven Hydrauvision Rental powerpacks. Ring line 2, intended for customer-specific functions, is powered by a single, electrically driven, 45-kW Hydrauvision Rental powerpack.