BorWin Alpha

BorWin alpha is an offshore platform, on which a station for high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission is installed. It is located northwest of the island of Borkum in the German Exclusive Economic Zone ( EEZ) of the North Sea.

The plant is used to convert the electrical energy generated in 1 offshore wind farm BARD Offshore into direct current at a voltage of ± 150 kV HVDC for BorWin1 for low-loss transmission of the power generated on land to the other party in the hall.

Engineering and Construction

As converter valves are on the BorWin alpha converter station but not Thyristors IGBT elements are used. This is also a black-start of the plant is possible. HVDC can provide reactive power to the network in the framework of flexible AC transmission system independent of the transmitted active power. The HVDC station is the first on an offshore platform in the world.

The platform BorWin alpha was built at a shipyard in Vlissingen in the Netherlands. The electrical equipment was supplied by Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) from Sweden. The cable route length of BorWin 1 is about 200 km, of which about 125 km along the Seetrasse ( platform BorWin alpha - Norderney - Hilgenriedersiel ) and about 75 km along the onshore route ( Hilgenriedersiel - hallway ).

The platform was towed to the floating crane Thialf to the site and installed there from late May to early June 2009. The total height of the building is 82 m, of which 61 m to the support structure, the so-called Jacket, omitted. It has a width of 36 m and a length of 50 m. The weight of the entire platform is 5000 tons (t). Of this total 1800 t on the BC.

Location and identification of the platform

The platform is located at position 54 ° 21.25 'N 006 ° 01.5 ' E in the WGS -84 system. She has a yellow painted with the inscription " BORWIN ALPHA " on all four sides. The night marking for navigation consists of a yellow lights on the corners of the top deck with the identifier " Oc ( 3) Y.16s 5M " ( interrupted yellow fire with a return of 16 seconds and a range of 5 nautical miles ). In addition, the platform is equipped with an AIS device. From the platform, a safety distance of 500 meters is observed.