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Wescott coats Beatrice transformers

By: Tom Russell 13/03/2018 Wescott Industrial Services

General Substations Windfarms

Jarrow-based Wescott Industrial Services supported the preparation of the two Offshore Transformer Modules (OTM) for the Beatrice offshore wind farm. The company executed a five month contract at Methil which saw a crew of some 44 blasters and painters coating the steel surfaces.

Tom Whittleton, Operations Director of Wescott Industrial Services, explained the challenges of the project: “We began the work, originally for Burntisland Fabrications (BiFab) Ltd but latterly working directly for Siemens, back in August. At that time we provided our own crews of highly trained and experienced blasters, painters and supervisors who are mainly ex-shipyard workers, and gradually more than doubled the numbers as deadlines approached. The pressure to complete the work by the Christmas shutdown, when most of the scaffolding comes down, was obviously quite intense but the men were fantastic and we finished perfectly on schedule.”

“With any external works in winter, the cold environment brings its own challenges, especially for spray painting the hi-tech coatings we now use on offshore structures. The coatings are a vital element for protecting the offshore structures which are exposed to a variety of harsh environments that are seriously damaging to their protective coatings as well as general operational damage – constant humidity with high salinity, intensive UV light and wave action in splash areas are the perfect conditions for enhanced corrosion.”

“This was a large project for us involving the erection of temporary structures to keep the steel and coatings relatively warm. We also applied Intersleek anti-fouling coatings on subsea structures which bring their own challenges in coating but the whole operation went extremely well and we’re looking forward to more work from a great client here.”

Located in the Moray Firth, the Beatrice project will be Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, comprising of 84 Siemens Gamesa SWT-7.0-154 turbines. The 588MW capacity array is expected to be capable of generating enough electricity to power approximately 450,000 homes. First power is currently scheduled for July 2018 with commissioning expected to follow 2019.

The £2.6bn project is a joint venture between SSE Renewables Limited, SDIC Power of China and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

For more information please follow the links provided. You can also view offshore wind projects worldwide using our interactive map.

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Wescott coats Beatrice transformers

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