• Renewable energy

High voltage expertise sparks major contract

The James Fisher group has consolidated its strong position in the renewables market with a significant new contract win at Triton Knoll offshore wind farm off the coast of Lincolnshire.

Work began at the site at the end of 2020 as the team from EDS HV Group started pre-testing, mock-up trials and cable preparation for the installation and termination of high voltage cables between Triton Knoll’s offshore foundations and the switchgear on each of the 90 turbines.

This critical cable termination and testing contract with German multinational energy company, RWE, builds on previous site preparation and UXO removal work at Triton Knoll undertaken by other teams in the James Fisher group throughout 2019.

As termination and testing business manager at EDS HV, Lee Glendening is leading the project. He says:

We are highly experienced in this type of complex work, which requires multi-skilled teams working in strict rotation to meet tight scheduled deadlines.

EDS has a reputation for employing highly trained engineers who are qualified to work with voltages in excess of the 66 kv cables at Triton Knoll. This allows the team to promise a superior degree of accuracy and to maintain the consistent record of zero termination failures over the last 15 years.

‘This is quite a rare achievement,’ explains Lee, ‘but we are very proud of our extremely high success rate and our “no snag” approach which reduces the need to return to a turbine for revisions – a move which saves costs and carbon footprint.’

At Triton Knoll, teams of engineers are organised to work in tightly planned 36-hour windows to ensure progression of the time-critical project. The aim is to eliminate the need for multiple return site visits, to minimise any safety risk associated with transporting the crew to and from the site, and to keep vessel emissions and costs down.

EDS has also been working closely with RWE to employ highly skilled electrical engineers for the quality-checks that follow the termination process. Both teams are expected to be working on this contract until late Summer 2021.