Wind Turbine Installation - Carrickallen Wind Farm

The Project

Lotus Electrical has just completed works on a wind farm site in County Caven, Ireland. The site consisted of two MM82 Turbines (hub height 59m), seven MM92 Turbines (hub height 74.5m) and one MM92 Turbine (hub height 64m). The total project output for these ten turbines is 20.5MW. This type of power output has the potential to power over 12,000 homes annually.

The site is Carrickallen Wind Farm. Construction started in May 2018 and they expect energisation to be in early November 2018. Lotus were on site for approximately 6 weeks of this time.

The main contractor for the works was Galetech Energy Services, all turbines were erected by Windhoist and grid connections were by H&MV. Low Voltage, High Voltage Switchgear connections and associated control cables were done by Lotus Electrical & Isoblock.

Relationships

Lotus Electrical worked alongside Isoblock, a German company based out of Osnabrück, who Lotus has worked with on Wind Farm projects for over 12 years. Together, in that time, we have worked on literally hundreds of wind turbines and our relationship continues to grow with every project.

Isoblock & Lotus Electrical are recruited for these projects by Senvion. Senvion has 26 years of experience in the renewable wind sector and has installed over 7,900 installed turbines. As a pioneer in wind energy, Senvion offers a wide portfolio of onshore and offshore turbines. With rated nominal power from 2 to 6.33 megawatts, rotor diameters of up to 152 m and a range of hub heights, they can develop individual solutions for projects of every size – from single turbines to entire wind farms.

Lotus Electrical Services Input

With each Wind Turbine project, the job of Lotus Electrical & Isoblock is to carry out the Low Voltage cable installation from the 11kV transformer to the control gear inside the turbine. This is done by installing 17x 240mm single core cables laid on a pre-installed ladder rack. Crimped and heat shrunk at each end these are connected to the relevant terminals and torqued to the desired rating. Three 11kV high voltage cables are run from the transformer to the main switchgear. Control signal cables are run between various switch gears and to the transformer. Upon completion of all connections, there is a vigorous testing process before each turbine can be handed over to the main contractor.