Dragados Offshore, Europe’s leader in HVDC converters for offshore platforms
At the end of 2024, the Dragados Offshore-Siemens Energy consortium was finalising construction and handover of a second high-voltage direct current (HVDC) converter platform for offshore wind farms in the North Sea, which will be installed in 2025.
Following on from DolWin6 (installed in 2022), BorWin5 is the second HVDC converter platform project that operator TenneT entrusted to the consortium formed by Cobra IS subsidiary Dragados Offshore and its partner Siemens Energy. The 900 MW platform will be set up in the North Sea off the German coast. More than 200 engineers worked for three years to complete the mega project’s engineering phase.
The platform, consisting of 25 modules and weighing 1,200 tonnes, was built by Dragados Offshore at its Spanish shipyard in Puerto Real, near Cádiz, Andalusia.
Siemens Energy built the HVDC transformer and conversion equipment which, combined with the auxiliary equipment installed by Dragados Offshore, will transform the 66 kV alternating current supplied by the wind turbines into 320 kV high-voltage direct current. A jacket structure weighing 7,000 tonnes, to support the platform, was also built at Puerto Real. It will be transferred to the North Sea, set up and anchored to the seabed with steel piles in the second quarter of 2025. The project also includes a heliport and accommodation for maintenance crews. Once it is up and running, the platform will supply electricity to more than 1.1 million German homes.
In addition to DolWin6 and BorWin5, TenneT has entrusted the consortium with the construction of three more 2 GW HVDC platforms. These projects are cementing Dragados Offshore’s leadership in infrastructure for Europe’s offshore wind industry.