GEMINI awards long-term maintenance contract to Belgian OWA and German EWE OSS
The Gemini offshore wind park in the Dutch North Sea, located 85 km north of the Dutch coast, is to be one of the world’s largest wind farms, both in terms of size as well as production (total capacity of 600 MW). Gemini is being built on two locations close to each other, ‘Buitengaats’ and ‘ZeeEnergie’.
Offshore Wind & Assistance (OWA), the offshore maintenance specialist of offshore solutions provider GeoSea (DEME Group) will operate and maintain the Balance of Plant for both windfarms. Next to providing marine logistics, the scope of works includes the maintenance of all foundations above and below water (2 x 75 WTG foundations +2 OHVS foundations) as well as the maintenance of the cable & scour protection (2 export cables, infield cables, export connector cable, scour protection at WTG and OHVS foundations) EWE Offshore Service & Solutions GmbH (EWE-OSS), the offshore subsidiary of the Oldenburg-based energy provider, will be in charge of operating, maintaining and monitoring two transformer stations at sea and one transformer station in Eemshaven. It will also be responsible for the network management of the two 220 kV export cables that will transport the electricity to land and a 380 kV stretch of cable on land that will connect the electricity to the transmission network.
EWE OSS will be supported with this contract by EWE NETZ and BTC – two other companies in the EWE Group.” The contract covers a period of 5 years, starting in 2016.
About OWA
OWA (Offshore & Wind Assistance NV) offers a wide range of services, including maintenance of offshore installations for wind energy and oil and gas applications. OWA provides marine logistic services (transport of technical personnel, goods and (spare) parts, heavy lifting) and conducts surveys and inspections and maintenance and repair works. OWA is a subsidiary of GeoSea (DEME Group) a fast growing company specialising in complex offshore marine engineering projects. GeoSea has participated in the construction of large-scale European offshore wind farms including the Alpha Ventus, EnBW Baltic 2 wind farm, Trianel West Brokum II and the Godewind wind farms in German waters, Westermost Rough, Kentish Flats and West of Duddon Sand wind farms in the UK, Walney and the Ormonde farms in the Irish Sea and the C-Power and the Northwind wind farms off the Belgian Coast. GeoSea’s business also covers more traditional activities such as soil investigation, drilling of large diameter piles and high-tech directional drilling. GeoSea relies on its ability to provide innovative techniques and high operational reliability through high-tech equipment. GeoSea’s jack-up platforms include Innovation, Neptune, Thor, Goliath, Vagant, Buzzard, Zeebouwer, Halewijn and Tijl II.
About EWE
As an innovative service provider with a regional focus, EWE is active in the business areas of energy, telecommunications and information technology. By bringing these three areas together under one roof, the company is well placed to develop and operate intelligent energy supply systems. Thanks to its range of innovative products for private and corporate customers, EWE is shaping the energy supply of tomorrow with the greatest possible sustainability, efficiency and reliability. With more than 9,000 employees and sales in excess of EUR 8 billion, EWE is one of the largest utility companies in Germany. The company, based in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, is primarily owned by the local government. It provides electricity to over 1.3 million customers in north west Germany, Brandenburg and Rügen, as well as parts of Poland and Turkey and supplies gas to around 1.7 million customers. It also provides almost 700,000 customers with telecommunication services. To achieve this, the various companies in the EWE Group operate around 200,000 kilometres of energy and telecommunication networks.
About Gemini
With a total capacity of 600 megawatts, Gemini is set to be one of the world’s largest offshore wind parks in the Dutch North Sea, both in size and in production. Four project partners have joined forces to make Gemini a reality: Canadian independent renewable energy company Northland Power (60% project interest), wind turbine manufacturer Siemens (20%), Dutch maritime contractor Van Oord (10%) and renewable energy, waste and raw materials company HVC (10%).
