Repowering the Schleiden Wind Farm: New Cable Run, More Power
In the Schleiden wind farm, new turbines are increasing production from 18 to 39 megawatts. However, in order for the grid to benefit from this boost in power, a new cable run is required. To achieve this, operators rely on robust medium-voltage cables from HELU.
More turbines, more power, better performance, but also increased challenges. Once upgrades to the wind farm located in Schleiden-Schöneseiffen were completed, the existing cable runs to the Wollenberg substation were unable to handle the increased flow of energy. A new 12-kilometre-long underground cable run was required.
Not far from the Belgian border, the Schleiden-Schöneseiffen wind farm feeds the power it produces into the public electricity grid. Repowering the wind farm involved the gradual dismantling of 18 older turbines which were then replaced by 13 modern, higher-performance systems. The previous wind turbines produced around 18 megawatts while repowering resulted in 39 megawatts being produced.
To ensure that the power being produced reached the substation—and households—with as little loss as possible, the owners GLS-Windfarm Schleiden GmbH commissioned Energie Nordeifel GmbH with the planning and construction of the new cable run. Along the twelve-kilometre-long stretch, two parallel cable systems were installed. Each system consists of three cores. Georg Gnädig, Project Lead with Energie Nordeifel, explains: “In total, we need 72 kilometres of cable which was delivered pre-assembled according to the section of cable run.”
The challenge: The new cable run crosses difficult terrain
The twelve-kilometre-long stretch presented difficulties for the experts from Energie Nordeifel. “We not only needed to pull the underground cables into ditches lining country roads, but also bore under railway lines, various brooks and creeks, as well as federal and county roads,” describes Gnädig. For the experts, this took a tremendous amount of skill and expertise, but also demanded a lot from the cables being installed.
For these runs, the HELU
NA2XS(F)2Y medium-voltage, underground cable was used. With a sheath wall thickness of two and a half millimetres, it’s able to defy the challenging conditions underground. The core insulation made of cross-linked polyethylene provides the cable with durability and robustness and the ability to easily withstand operating temperatures up to 90°C.
Repowering: What happens when old wind turbines are replaced by new, higher-performance systems
Repowering describes the targeted replacement of older wind turbine systems with modern, higher-performance models at the same location without developing new areas. At the Schleiden-Schöneseiffen wind farm, this means: With a hub height of 135 metres and a rotor diameter of 101 metres, the new systems produce more than two and a half times the power. Around 90 megawatt hours per year. This is enough power to supply roughly 3,000 households with electricity.
