Drydocks World Completes Giant Platform

Drydocks World has announced the successful completion of the pioneering HVDC converter platform DolWin beta. The platform, the world’s largest in terms of capacity, was built at Drydocks World Dubai.

The platform is one of the main components of TenneT’s 900 MW DC offshore grid connection “DolWin2”. The platform will connect large offshore wind farms on the German North Sea. TenneT is the grid operator for the Netherlands and a large part of Germany.

The structure weighing approximately 23,000 tonnes is larger than a football field and is around 100 meters long, 70 meters wide and 90 meters in height. The platform design was adopted from semi-submersible offshore rigs to cater to huge capacity requirements.

DolWin beta is built for a large wind farm cluster in the German sector of the North Sea and will be located in the DolWin cluster 45 kilometres off the coast. The platform will have a generating capacity of more than 900 MW which is sufficient to light up a major city such as Frankfurt.

It will receive alternating current from several wind farms with more than 200 wind turbines and convert it into direct current before sending it onshore via subsea cables. The platform will stand on the seabed at a depth of around 30 metres.

His Excellency Khamis Juma Buamim, Chairman of Drydocks World & Maritime World, said: “Our foray into the offshore oil & gas and energy sectors has met with great success and this project has established our credentials as a reliable service provider to the sector.

We have achieved 3 million man hours LTI free on this project. We have proved once again that we are able to deliver world-leading projects by implementing the highest possible standards relating to HSEQ.” 

Following this completion, the platform is scheduled to leave Dubai in early June 2014.

It will be towed to Haugesund, Norway on a Heavy Lift Vessel for commissioning after which it will be towed to its offshore location. The unmanned platform will be remotely controlled and managed.

[mappress]
June 11, 2014