Offshore Substation Design: High-Level Overview of the Industry Best Practices

The offshore wind industry has been gaining momentum on the East Coast of the United States as its first U.S. offshore wind farm (OWF), off Block Island (30 MW), has been in operation for nearly three years. States such as Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Maryland are all taking significant steps forward in embedding offshore wind within their future energy portfolios. BVG Associates predicts that the U.S. offshore wind market will develop rapidly between 2020 and 2030, with a high forecast of annual installed capacity surpassing 1 GW by 2026 and reaching 8.4 GW by 2030. As the industry moves from demonstration- to commercial-scale projects, there is growing interest in high-capacity farms sited farther offshore in deeper waters (see Figure 1).