DeepOcean awarded export cable installation contract by NSW for the Merkur Offshore Wind Farm in Germany

Project Description

The Merkur offshore wind farm is located 45km north of the island Borkum in the North Sea, within the exclusive economic zone of Germany. With 66 turbines each rated at 6MW, Merkur will have a total capacity of 396MW.

NSW is contracted by TenneT Offshore GmbH (TOG) to establish the grid connection between the Merkur offshore substation and the DolWin gamma converter platform. The designated export cable connection will comprise of two parallel 150kV rated HVAC cables.

One of the specific technical challenges of the Merkur grid connection is the fact that the export cable corridor crosses nine live cables and one commissioned offshore wind farm.

DeepOcean’s Scope of Work

DeepOcean is contracted by NSW for the marine works associated with the transportation, installation and burial of the HVAC cables from the DolWin gamma converter platform towards the Merkur offshore substation. In addition to the transportation, installation and trenching of the two parallel export cables, the work scope includes a burial assessment study, route surveys, route engineering, pre lay grapnel runs, installation of cable protection systems and pre/post-lay crossing protection works.

The work is scheduled to be executed in 2018 by DeepOcean’s in-house fleet of dedicated offshore installation and trenching vessels.

DeepOcean’s Managing Director for Cable Installation & Trenching Pierre Boyde said, “We are delighted to be working once more with NSW and building on our strong delivery record of cable lay and trenching projects in the German sector.”