Wilhelmsen Ships Service’s Project Logistics team at Lysaker, Norway has just completed two shipments of heavy duty electrical cable to Belgium, for use in the Belwind offshore energy project in the North Sea off Belgium. The cables were produced in Tonsberg at Parker ScanRope AS, and loaded onto 56 reels. The cable will be used to connect the turbines together.
Each reel weighed between 18 - 45 tons, and contained in total 43,722 metres of cable, totalling some 2000 tonnes. Wilhelmsen Ships Service recommended sending these in two shipments, using the same vessel for both journeys. This meant that the same dunnage, securing chains, and welding points could be used for both journeys, and the experience gained in loading the first shipment significantly reduced the time taken to load the second.
Despite the sub-zero temperatures and frozen sea, the vessel was able to leave ahead of schedule. In addition to arranging the loading and securing of the reels, Wilhelmsen Ships Service was responsible for arranging the port call at both ends of the journey, in Tonsberg (Norway) and Zeebrugge (Belgium).
The Belwind wind farm is nearing completion. When completed, giant wind turbine project will have a capacity of 330MW and will produce 1.1 TWh of electricity on an annual basis. This is enough to provide about 350.000 households with green energy. It is located 46kms offshore off the Belgian coast.
(www.wilhelmsen.com/shipsservice)