Jan De Nul Installs Cables for Formosa

The provider of specialized services for the offshore industry, Jan De Nul Group said that its cable laying vessel Willem de Vlamingh has completed installation of the three export cables at the 120MW Formosa 1 phase two offshore wind farm in Taiwan.

The maritime infrastructure main focus is dredging has a engineering procurement construction and installation (EPCI) contract for overall balance of plant at the project.

"As part of Jan De Nul Group’s EPCI contract for building of the overall Balance of Plant, Jan De Nul Group mobilized its Cable Laying Vessel Willem de Vlamingh to install the 17 inter array and 3 export cables," said a press release from the company.

These three export cables have been successfully installed within one week. Thanks to its shallow draft design, the Willem de Vlamingh was able to position in water depths of not more than 7 meters, thus limiting the shore pull distance to around 1,750 meters.

At the beach landing, the cables have been pulled through three HDD ducts into the transition joint bays. The Willem de Vlamingh is also acting as Trenching Support Vessel for the jet-trenching of both the export as well as the inter array cables.

For the installation of the export cables, Jan De Nul Group relied on its local supply chain network for the performance of the beach pull assistance works including installation of the HDD ducts, dive support and supply and operation of the support vessels.

The wind farm is owned by Formosa I Wind Power Co. Ltd., a partnership of Orsted (35%), JERA (32.5%), Macquarie Capital (25%) and Swancor Holding (7.5%).

The offshore wind farm is located around six kilometers off the west coast of the Miaoli district in the Taiwan Strait, with water depths ranging between 15 and 30 meters. The original demonstrator project, comprising two wind turbines with a total capacity of 8MW, is currently being extended. This second phase will add 20 offshore wind turbines with a total capacity of 120MW to Formosa 1's current 8MW capacity.

Formosa 1 will be the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in Taiwan before 2020.