Onshore Civil Engineering Design for Transmission & Distribution
The Challenge
Our client Nexans has been appointed to design, manufacture and install a 220kV and 400kV subsea and onshore export cable system for the Moray West Offshore Wind Farm. The successful delivery of the project will connect the wind farm to the UK’s national grid, delivering electricity to 650,000 homes.
As part of Scotland’s ongoing commitment to net-zero, the project is an important step towards the UK’s goal of proving enough offshore wind energy to power the country. Up to 10GW of wind energy will be generated from the offshore windfarm, contributing a quarter of the UK’s goal of 40GW by 2030.
The work will connect the project’s substation to the national grid electricity transmission system at Blackhillock, Keith.
The Solution
Our civil engineering team is now supporting Nexans’ landside works at Moray West to deliver two high voltage circuits across 31 kilometres of terrain in Moray and Aberdeenshire. IKM’s onshore civil work scope includes:
Detailed design of the circuit route and corridor
Transition Bay, Joint Bay & Pulling Pit design
Detailed design of utility infrastructure, carriageway and watercourse crossings
Site Compound design
Temporary access point and haul road design
Crane hard standing design
From the export cable landfall point, underground cable circuits will carry export power along an approximate route length of 25km to an onshore substation which will be located in close proximity to Blackhillock Substation(approx. 2.9km). A final connection will be made from the Moray West onshore substation into the 400kV transmission system at Blackhillock Substation.