Jan De Nul reaches export cable milestone on Taiwanese project

Jan De Nul Group has reached another milestone in its work on Taiwan Power Company’s Offshore Windfarm Phase 1 Project Demo.

The company recently connected the project to the Taiwanese grid, completing installation of four medium-voltage export cables. It also completed an upgrade of the onshore substation in Changhua County.

Jan De Nul’s cable-laying vessel Willem de Vlamingh successfully installed the subsea export cables from the windfarm, 10 km off the coast, to the shore where they were connected at the landfall area near Fangyuan.

For the beach pull-in operation, Jan De Nul Group teamed up with its Taiwanese partner Hung Hua Construction, who provided essential marine equipment, including a jack-up barge.

Due to the presence of a nearshore oyster farm and an important shipping lane for fishermen on the route for the export cables, the cables had to be pulled through 1-km underground ducts, which were installed by horizontal directional drilling (HDD), up to a depth of 21 m below the seabed.

Jan De Nul Group project director Jan Kop said, “In the contract, HDD was stipulated over a distance of 300 m, but Jan De Nul decided to extend it to prevent any damage to the sensitive coastal zone and fishfarms.”

After cable installation, trenching work started. For the nearshore trenching work, Jan De Nul’s Starfish excavators used plough-skid and jet-skid that were developed inhouse. Willem de Vlamingh acted as a trenching support vessel for the offshore work.

Together with its Taiwanese subcontractor Chung-Hsien Chen, Jan De Nul Group installed and commissioned new electrical equipment, including high voltage transformers, high-voltage and medium-voltage switchgear, a new SCADA control room and emergency power supply, inside the onshore substation in Da Cheng. This custom-designed upgrade was essential for the substation to be able to receive power generated by the new windfarm.

Installation of 84 pin piles and 21 jackets offshore is making steady progress and Jan De Nul Group’s consortium partner Hitachi Ltd continues preparing the wind turbines at the Taichung marshalling port.

The turbine installation campaign, due to start in August, will use Jan De Nul’s jack-up Installation vessel Taillevent.

Source:https://www.rivieramm.com/news-content-hub/jan-de-nul-reaches-export-cable-milestone-on-taiwanese-project-60468