Riffgat O FFSHORE-WINDP ARK Reference Solution Fire Protection for Offshore Wind Farm TITANUS® Firexting® Oxyreduct®

riffgat O FFSHORE-WINDP ARK Reference solution Fire protection for offshore wind farm TITANUS® FirExting® OxyReduct®

A comprehensive fire protection concept keeps the transformer substation safe at the Riffgat wind farm THE CUSTOMER

A comprehensive fire protection concept safeguards the transformer substation from fire risks at the Riffgat wind farm, located 15 km north-west of Borkum.

Equipped with fire protection technology WAGNER: The platform is prepared for the installation of a wind turbine The transformer substation at the Riffgat wind farm

Providing climate-friendly North Sea, the “gateway to the can be fed into the German 220 power since February 2014: reef.” Costing € 450 million, the kV grid. The project engineers the 30 wind turbines at the facility with an output of 108 from the ENOVA Group came Riffgat offshore wind farm. MW supplies roughly 120,000 upon WAGNER while searching At its heart is the 36 m tall households with climate-friendly for a partner to establish and im- transformer substation, which power. For this purpose, 30 Sie- plement a fire protection concept: contains all the technical mens SWT-2.6-120 wind power “The fact that we offer a broad equipment – as well as a plants with an output of 3.6 MW spectrum of products ranging state-of-the-art fire protection each and a height of 150 m were from highly sensitive fire detec- solution. erected on a surface of roughly 6 tion and gas extinguishing sys- km². tems to fire prevention, combined Located 15 km north-west from with decades of experience along the island of Borkum, the wind A cable connection of roughly with it, quickly persuaded EWE farm (a joint project between the 80 km and 155 kV, known as the and ENOVA,” says Michael Kind, Oldenburg-based energy and export line, ultimately delivers the Head of the WAGNER Group’s telecommunications company power from the electrical subs- Hamburg/Hanover branch office. EWE and the ENOVA Group) gets tation on the generating side to its name from the shipping route the transformer substation on the of the same name in the southern mainland, from which the power Individual fire prevention concept

THE RISK ANALYSIS

Ensure fire protection in places where fire fighters can’t reach: The remote island location poses a special challenge.

An offshore wind farm forms a cannot be used in these areas, could damage or destroy a multi- closed power supply system in because they require the transfor- million Euro project like Riffgat in the middle of the sea. In order mer substation to be shut down. the event of a malfunction,” says to channel the energy generated Dipl.-Ing. Michael Kind. by the individual wind turbines “We provided the complete fire and feed it to the transformer prevention solution for the Riffgat substation at sea, all of the wind wind farm power transformer farm’s turbines must be connec- substation. This has the tremend- ted to one another via sea cable. ous advantage that everything In total, nearly 25 km of sea cable really is optimally co-ordinated. in various power levels was laid You cannot take a chance that for data transmission and control of the Riffgat turbines, which all ultimately converge at the transformer substation.

The transformer substation is thus the central hub of the entire offshore facility. A severe malfunction or even a fault would bring the wind park’s production to a complete standstill. Accor- dingly, maintaining the functio- ning of the transformer substation was given very high priority in project planning. The control rooms, air conditio- THE PROTECTION OBJECTIVE ning equipment and batteries constitute the main risk of fire The following protection ■ Ensure smooth operation breaking out due to the great objectives were defined in without having to shut number of various electrical com- the project planning for the down the power to the ponents they contain. Such areas transformer substation: system place special requirements on fire detection in terms of detection ■ Prevent fires from brea- ■ Prevent false alarms and sensibility, making conventional king out or spreading in unnecessary interruptions point-type detectors unsuitable order to minimise the which could disrupt the for the various room conditions. level of damage wind farm’s power pro- And if worst comes to worst, duction extinguishing water and foam THE SOLUTION

All-round protection featuring very early smoke detection, fire prevention, extinguishing technology and a fire risk management system.

Detection, quick release and fire prevention system maintains maintenance – the fire protec- the reduced oxygen content at a tion concept in a nutshell low level until the risk of the fire re-emerging can be ruled out. At the heart of the fire protec- Since the system can extract the tion installation is the TITANUS® nitrogen required for this purpose air sampling smoke detection from the room’s air on its own system. A total of 34 units of the using membrane technology, the very early smoke detection sys- low oxygen level in the protected tem were installed in the various area can be maintained as long sectors to continuously sample as necessary – even over multiple the interior air. The TITANUS® op- days in the event of an emergen- tical detector has especially high cy. sensitivity and reacts significantly faster than conventional point- This means that areas equipped type detectors – and there are with the system, like control no false alarms in the process. If rooms, air-conditioning equip- a fire is detected, FirExting® gas ment and batteries, can be reliab- 400 kg of nitrogen in cylinders for quick release in ten areas with extinguishing technology uses ni- ly protected from fire damage. areas between 10 and 100 m² trogen to reduce the oxygen content in the room to 13.8 % vol. Continuous monitoring from This takes away the fire’s supply the mainland informed at an early stage, before of oxygen, suffocating it. A total a fire can even cause malfunc- of roughly 400 kg of nitrogen is In order to ensure that no tions. This is a valuable time kept on hand at the transformer incident at the transformer advantage in serious situations. substation in 140 l cylinders to substation goes unnoticed, all In addition, the system records perform the quick release. fire prevention equipment is all incidents arising in connection integrated into the VisuLAN® with the fire prevention system. Since an extinguishing system risk management system. All This means that VisuLAN® can can only extinguish for a certain messages from the TITANUS® also provide valuable information period of time and the extin- air sampling smoke detectors, in the aftermath of a fire. guishing agent will have to be such as alert alarms, pre-alarms replaced for the next use, the and main alarms in dual detec- OxyReduct® fire prevention sys- tor dependency are recorded tem is installation in addition to here and trigger specific actions offset this circumstance. In order defined ahead of time. The alert to prevent a fire from smoulde- from the info alarm, for example, ring on or reigniting after the gas is triggered distinctly before the extinguishing system conducts main alarm goes off. The person- its quick release, the OxyReduct® nel on the mainland are thereby “A FINELY TUNED SOLUTION”

SYSTEM OVERVIEW

An interview AIR SAMPLING SMOKE DETECTOR with Michael Kind, Head of the TITANUS® WAGNER Group’s Hamburg/Hanover ■ Maximum sensitivity for earliest possible fire detection branch office ■ Dual detector dependency ■ False alarm-proof What were the special challenges in planning the fire prevention system? Offshore wind parks are unmanned. Complica- ted accessibility made it necessary to provide fire prevention solutions that will work regard- OXYGEN REDUCTION less of when the emergency teams arrive. The emphasis of the planning was on safeguarding the operation without having to shut down OxyReduct® the system. Therefore the solution was fire ■ generates nitrogen on-site prevention – in combination with different sys- directly from the ambient air tems co-ordinated with each other to provide ■ keeps the oxygen concentration all-round protection. at a constantly low level ■ reduces the risk of fire breaking What‘s special about this concept? out and limits the spreading of a fire Standard fire prevention solutions only include basic equipment. A finely tuned solution was therefore implemented, combining early smoke detection, fire prevention, gas extingu- GAS EXTINGUISHING ishing technology, sprinkler and foam extingu- 400 kg of nitrogen in cylinders for quick release in ten areas with ishing systems – all continuously monitored areas between 10 and 100 m² FirExting® with nitrogen from a hazard management system on the mainland. The project made almost exclusive ■ for quick release in use of WAGNER’s own products. protected area ■ The inert gas nitrogen is distributed homogeneously What distinct advantages are provided ■ extinguishes the fire effectively with oxygen reduction by means of without leaving any residue OxyReduct®? behind OxyReduct® offers the major advantage that a protective atmosphere can be created with the controlled supply of nitrogen, which RISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM effectively protects complete areas against the effects of a fire. This makes it possible to VisuLAN® maintain the reduced oxygen level indefini- tely, because the nitrogen is extracted from ■ monitors the networked fire protection systems the room’s air. In the Riffgat offshore wind ■ enables reliable remote park, OxyReduct® is intended to ensure that monitoring and diagnosis fire prevention can be maintained after a gas ■ provides a valuable time extinguishing system has been triggered until advantage in emergencies with the emergency teams have arrived on site. an overview and defined And that may take a while, depending on the courses of action circumstances. www.wagnergroup.com at contact personal your Find E-Mail: 511. +49. Phone: 973 Germany Langenhagen, 30853 1 Schleswigstraße GmbH WAGNER Group WAGNER Group Plant Engineering &Construction

[email protected] – 5 83-0 (Headquarters)

Hazard management (Visu management Hazard Fire extinguishing (FirExting Active fire prevention (OxyReduct prevention fire Active (TITANUS systems detection fire early Very systems alarm and detection Fire solutions comprehensive and innovative –with protection fire in WAGNER standards sets ® ) LAN® ® ) ) ® )