About Triton Knoll
Triton Knoll is an 857MW offshore wind farm, located within the Greater Wash strategic area, located off the east coast of England, approximately 20 miles off the coast of Lincolnshire and 28 miles from the coast of north Norfolk. It will provide enough capacity for approximately 800,000 homes.
Once constructed, offshore and onshore electrical infrastructure will connect the wind farm to the electricity network. Sub-sea export cables from the offshore wind farm will make landfall just north of Anderby Creek, with the power entering the electricity network at Bicker Fen Substation, near Boston, via a network of underground cabling.
The Challenge
As the turnkey communications contractor, Bedroq were responsible for the design, supply, installation, configuration, testing, commissioning, technical support, performance monitoring and underwriting of the full wind farm communications system.
The design had to be optimised in order to provide the smallest possible footprint with respect to panel quantities and size, whilst retaining necessary panel segregation.
The designed system had to be based on a standard design, with a proven track record in high voltage environment and have a design life of 25 years. All components had to be capable of replacement, modification or configuration, without loss of overall system functionality where reasonably practicable.
Training was also a requirement for each system within the Scope of Supply and in accordance with the client specifications.
The solution
Bedroq designed a fully resilient fibre optic backbone, utilising the Offshore/Onshore export & string cables and locally installed fibre cabling on the Offshore Platform (OSP’s) and Onshore Substations.
SCADA networks were designed and built to provide the following network capabilities:
- Resilient
- Reliable
- High availability
- Secure
- Low latency
- Immunity to electromagnetic interference and conformance to IEC 61850
- Proven track record achieved in similar projects & environments
The chosen core network hardware was based on the Siemens Ruggedcom family of network products, which have been successfully deployed on a number of Offshore Wind Farm (OWF) projects both in the UK and abroad. The range of Ruggedcom network devices were specifically designed to be utilised in high voltage electrical substation environments.
Bedroq carried out the full range of project scope from detailed design through Factory Acceptance Testing, installation of system equipment and cabling on the OSP’s and onshore substations, Site Acceptance Testing, Performance monitoring and final handover acceptance.
All elements of the project were successfully managed with all key project milestones delivered within timescales and within the project budget.
