You can’t move large amounts of electricity without substations to control the voltage, so it’s significant that America’s first offshore wind substation has been built. It will serve Vineyard Wind 1 south of Cape Cod, which will have a capacity of 806 MW (about 75% of Seabrook Station) and could start exporting power by the end of the year.
Power will be sent from the substation to the mainland through two export cables running to Barnstable, Mass. From there, underground cables along public roads will go to an onshore substation in the village of Hyannis, next to an existing Eversource substation.
The offshore substation is a record setter for the Iberdrola Group, which owns Avangrid, as it is the company’s largest substation ever installed.
That substation consists of two main components: the topside and the jacket. It weighs in at more than 5,000 tons.
Return to the Concord Monitor