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Transportation and installation of reactors and transformers

Sector:
  • Power Grid

Expertise:
  • Project logistics

  • Heavy transport

Benefits:
  • Reduced preparation

  • Optimized schedule

  • Simplified management

Location:
  • United Kingdom

Mammoet successfully installed four shunt reactors and transported and installed two transformers for an onshore substation in northeast Scotland, UK.

Firstly, Mammoet was tasked with offloading four shunt reactors, weighing 57t each, and positioning them onto their foundations. In order to lift the reactors, Mammoet used a 350t capacity mobile crane in four separate crane positions. This was completed in two days.

The next phase of the project involved discharging the two transformers, weighing 193t each, from a coaster vessel at Buckie harbor using a 600t capacity crane in one day.

One transformer was placed into temporary storage at the harbor using 10 axle lines of SPT and the second transformer was loaded directly to the 16 axle AL50 girder frame trailer. Using the AL50 girder frame, the first transformer was transported from Buckie harbor to an onshore substation for an offshore wind farm, approximately 20 miles away.

The route passed through a town center where traffic management was arranged with the local authority. Once on site, the transformer was offloaded from the girder frame trailer and installed onto its foundation.

The second transformer was then transshipped from the storage location at Buckie harbor into the girder frame using the SPT and Mammoet repeated the transport operation from the harbor to the substation site.

The installation of the second transformer was completed eight days after the arrival of the coaster vessel into Buckie harbor.

Mammoet needed to engage with third-party authorities and the customer to ensure the planning, permissions, and consent conditions were met. The detailed planning for the operational phase took Mammoet approximately two months to complete.