Member Article

Seal manufacturers clinch windfarm contract

Cable seal manufacturer Roxtec has been selected to supply four onshore windfarm projects for ScottishPower Renewables (SPR).

Graham O’Hare, Managing Director of Greater Manchester-based Roxtec UK, said the latest agreement reinforced Roxtec’s position as one of the key components in the windfarm sector.

The deal will see the Swedish-owned company supply a windfarm upgrade in Arecleoch, inSouth Ayrshire, Scotland. It will also supply three, new-build windfarms in Middleton, near Newton Mearns, Harestanes, near Moffat andCarland Cross, Cornwall.

“We are very pleased to win this work,” he said. “Roxtec is now becoming the industry standard for sealing cables in the windfarm sector. Roxtec seals the cables in the cable trench that connects the windfarm array cables to the substation.

“For Carland Cross, Arecleogh and Middleton we are supplying our H3 trefoil seals which are specialist substation seals. They are meticulously designed to seal 150mm ducts and tested to be strong enough to carry the weight of the high voltage single core cables at the point they enter the substation – which transports power to the national grid.”

Mr O’Hare said effective sealing of 33kV substations was important to protect them from leakage and humidity.

“Roxtec has a problem-solving ethos,” he said. “Humidity is a big issue in substations and can be a very disruptive and expensive problem. Our seals work by allowing several cables to be sealed at one point of the substation wall.

“This immediately reduces the risk of water leakage, known as ingress, because by reducing the number of entry points required for the cables you also reduce the potential leak points.”

Mr O’Hare said Roxtec’s retrofit sealing solutions also cut costs for the operator by reducing the man hours required to manage the cables. The firm has its UK headquarters in Bury.

“The watertight substation seals provide plenty of spare capacity for upgrades,” he said. “The beauty of this is that new holes do not need to be cut to install new cables which saves money in engineering time and prevents costly disruptions. Roxtec’s seals are also designed to cater for triplex formation power cables.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .