China: Dynamic cable ready to connect floating to fixed wind turbine

Orient Cable (NBO) has completed works on the dynamic subsea cable at China’s Yangxi Shapa III offshore wind project that will connect a floating wind turbine to a fixed unit for the first time.

Commissioning tests of what is said to be the world’s first anti-typhoon floating wind turbine were completed on 1 September, representing the end of offshore work and that the unit is ready to connect to the 400 MW project.

According to NBO, due to the extreme weather conditions in the South China Sea, the dynamic cable is necessary to meet the requirements operating under even 17-class typhoon conditions.

This set a lot of challenges in terms of the whole engineering work, including tensile, anti-bending, anti-fatigue, as well as adopting distributed buoyancy and ballast to keep the configuration in shallow water, the company added.

‘‘We see this project as a typical case by working closely with the stakeholders engaged from the very beginning, to clear up challenges in different scenarios and interfaces and select the best solutions for this project. A long-standing partnership, as a driver and commitment of NBO, does help to make a great success,’’ said Zhou Zewei, chief engineer at NBO. 

Orient Cable won the contract to provide the 35kV dynamic cable to connect the 5.5 MW floating wind turbine to the fixed-bottom turbine at the beginning of the year.

The 5.5 MW MingYang turbine is deployed for demonstration purposes.

China Three Gorges’ (CTG) Yangxi Shapa III will also comprise 31 MySE6.45-180 turbines mounted on fixed-bottom foundations.