Wind Power

Wind energy substation sets sail for New York offshore project

Wind energy substation sets sail for New York offshore project
(The offshore wind energy substation was built in Texas and floated to its permanent location in federal waters off Long Island, New York. Credit: Orsted and Eversource)

An offshore wind substation set sail in late May from a Texas fabrication facility on a voyage across the Gulf of Mexico and then up the East Coast for installation at the South Fork Wind project site near Long Island, New York.

Kiewit Offshore Services designed and built the substation, which will be deployed at Ørsted and Eversource’s South Fork Wind project. The wind energy project could enter service by the end of this year.

Kiewit built the 1,500-ton, 60-foot-tall substation at its Ingleside facility near Corpus Christi. 

South Fork Wind is in its offshore construction phase, with work underway to install a 68-nautical mile submarine cable from its landfall below Wainscott Beach, in East Hampton, to the wind farm site some 35 miles east of Montauk, N.Y. Cable laying is underway and installation of monopile foundations is slated to start in the coming weeks.

South Fork Wind is expected to be the first utility-scale offshore wind farm completed in federal waters. The project would be New York’s first offshore wind facility.

The substation is a so-called topside structure that will sit on a monopile foundation, collect the power produced by wind turbines and connect it to the grid. 

Work also is underway on the Edison Chouest Offshore, a Jones Act-qualified wind farm service operations vessel that will support Ørsted and Eversource’s projects in the Northeast. The Jones Act, formally known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, is a federal statute that regulates maritime commerce in U.S. waters and between U.S. ports.