DEME Offshore deployed Enerpac’s hydraulic levelling and fixation systems to install 80 General Electric wind turbines at the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm in France.
Patrick Frencken, Enerpac’s key account manager northwest Europe, said that the cylinders and hoses were delivered to Smulders in Belgium where the transition pieces (TPs) were being assembled. The Enerpac system allows accurate levelling and fixation of the TPs on the monopile foundation.
DEME Offshore then transported the TPs by barge to the project site offshore France.
The levelling system uses 12 pre-installed Enerpac 150-ton (136-tonne) aluminium hydraulic cylinders inside the TP. By adjusting the spring return cylinders, precise levelling of the TP is achieved, Enerpac explained.
Once levelled, the 25-tonne (22.7-tonne) steel fixation cylinders positioned subsea at the bottom of the TP are activated to hold the TP in position during completion of the grouting process.
