CG Holdings Belgium N.V. (a subsidiary of CG and part of the Gautam Thapar-led US$ 4 billion Avantha Group) announced the successful installation of the company’s first offshore wind turbines generation project – Belwind. The wind farm is located in the North Sea, about 50 km from the Belgian shoreline.
The project was set up in collaboration with two other firms. CG was responsible for the engineering and delivery of the high-voltage installation, the transformers and the connection to the ELIA network; Fabricom for project management, modular construction and the electrical works and Iemants for steel and mechanical constructions.
Mr. Gautam Thapar, Chairman and CEO of the Avantha Group said "CG’s technological superiority and ground-breaking innovation will provide the first-ever ‘onshore’ booster transformer in the offshore wind power industry. This is a proud moment for us and we are glad to part of Belgium’s largest energy project."
Mr. S.M. Trehan, Managing Director, CG said, "At CG, we are constantly exploring options for green energy generation. The Belwind project, upon completion, will annually produce 1.1 TWH of green power thereby keeping 540,000 tonnes of CO2 out of the air."
"CG’s investment and commitment to green energy is in line with the EWEA (European Wind Energy Association) impetus to the sector. EWEA is planning to build 118 GW onshore and 38 GW offshore wind energy of additional capacity by the year 2020 and we are confident that CG will be a part of this growth phase," he added.
Belwind park is being built in two stages of 55 wind turbines each, with a total capacity of 330 MW. The total project cost is approximately 610 Mio EUR of phase 1 and the windfarm will produce 1.1 TWh annually, sufficient to provide approximately 350,000 homes with wind power.
To connect the first stage of the Belwind off-shore wind farm, a complete high voltage substation 200 MVA 150/33 kV will be built on a monopile foundation and this off-shore substation will be connected with a 150 kV electrical submarine cable to a newly built 150 kV booster substation onshore.
Mr. Koen Van Peteghem, General Manager of CG Systems Division said, "The substation was installed on its offshore seabed foundation 3 weeks ahead of the contractual deadline. This success is a result of the intense collaboration between the three Belgian companies (CG, Fabricom and Iemants) in the framework of the temporary commercial association BOSS (Belgian Offshore Substation Solution)."
CG Systems Division in Belgium recently developed an innovative design for the transport of electrical energy at high voltage levels from the offshore wind farm Belwind and to connect it on a safe and reliable way to the existing electrical transmission grid on-shore.
The patent pending concept of CG allows smooth switching on the transmission grid and it minimises the off-shore maintenance activities by locating all controls of the main off-shore equipment to the shore. Contrary to the traditional setup, some of the maintenance-critical electrical infrastructure is installed on land, instead of offshore. This procedure reduces the risk of failures substantially, optimizes maintenance and guarantees a maximum availability of the wind farm.
Crompton Greaves Limited (CG), part of the US$ 4 bn Avantha Group, is a pioneering leader in the management and application of electrical energy, with a presence in nine countries – India, Belgium, USA, Canada, Ireland, UK, Hungary, Indonesia and France.
CG is active in the global power transmission & distribution (T&D) arena, and is amongst the world’s top ten transformer manufacturers. The company is organised into three business groups, viz., power systems, industrial systems and consumer products. Nearly, two-thirds of its turnover accrues from product lines in which it enjoys a leadership position.
The US$ 4 bn Avantha Group is one of India’s leading business conglomerates. Its successful entities include BILT, Crompton Greaves, The Global Green Company, Avantha Power & Infrastructure, Solaris ChemTech Industries, Biltech Building Elements, Salient Business Solutions, and Avantha Technologies.
With an impressive global footprint, Avantha operates in over ten countries, employing 20,000 people worldwide. The Group has business interests in diverse areas including power transmission and distribution equipment and services, paper and pulp, energy and infrastructure, food processing, farm forestry, chemicals, IT and ITES. Led by Gautam Thapar, Avantha demonstrates strong leadership globally and emerges as a focused corporate, leveraging its knowledge, leadership and operations, adding lasting value for its stakeholders and investors.
