Wind farms

Modern wind power plants are effective and one park may consist of even more than hundred individual wind power mills. Wind power plants can be managed and controlled safely and effectively by using optical fibre cables. One special advantage of optical fibre cables is their immunity to external electromagnetic interferences. Nestor Cables has delivered optical fibre cables and related accessories to several wind power parks in Finland. Based on our experience we have developed a complete product concept for the needs of wind power park constructors.

The concept includes all optical fibre cables and accessories for construction of wind power plant management and control systems. Because the management system is only a small part in the total implementation of a wind power park, we have developed our concept to be as simple as possible. The concept is applicable to small and large wind power parks all over the world. 

Optical fibre cables

Optical fibre cables are generally installed into the same ditch with electric cables alongside roads. Therefore, optical fibre cables should be non-metallic and have sufficient strong construction in order to withstand the stresses of direct burial installation, unless duct or microduct cables are used, which are blown into ducts. Nestor Cables non-metallic cable selection includes for example directly buried FYO2RMU 3,5 kN and FZ4RMU Flex 3,5 kN with flex tubes. FZOMU-SD is non-metallic duct cable for pulling or blowing. FYORMU Micro and FZOMU-SD Micro are micro duct cables to be blown into micro ducts.

Splice cabinets

The simplest way is to install an optical fibre cable directly from power substation to each wind power mill, but especially in large wind power parks the cabling is secured by installing two cables to each wind power mill. These cables can entry directly wind power mills, but they are often terminated in splice cabinet outside the mills. From the cabinet then two cables are installed to the wind power mill. Nestor Cables NC-362 splice cabinets are double closure solutions consisting of the actual splice cabinet NC-315 and a protective distribution cabinet K1 with pedestal footing. NC-315 splice cabinet has positions for ten NC-48S splice trays and for four NC-YJT patch panels, which enable quick and flexible network connection changes in the cabinet. The maximum number of connectors in the cabinet is 48 with SC connectors and 96 with LC connectors.

Termination closures and accessories for wind power mills

Termination closures shall be suitable to be used in the possible humidity inside the wind power mills and they shall have termination capacity of even 24 fibres. For this purpose, the suitable product is the new, installation friendly and tight termination closure NC-135 developed by Nestor Cables. Fibre pigtails and connector adapters are also included in Nestor Cables’ product selection.

Patch panels for power substations

At power substations the optical fibre cables coming from wind power mills are generally terminated to normal 19-inch patch panels, which are installed in the same cabinet with active network equipment. For this purpose, the suitable products are NC-232 patch panels with termination capacity of 24 or 48 fibres. The height of the NC-232 patch panels is 1 U (44,45 mm) and they can be installed directly one above the other. For protection of patch cords the patch panels are provided with patch cord guides and quick fixing protection/marking plate in front of the panel. Panels are delivered as a basic assembly or factory assembled with 12, 24 or 48 fibres including mounted adapters, colour coded fibre pigtail sets and splice protection sleeves according to the number of fibres.

Connection cabinets for power substations

At power substations the active network equipment and patch panels are installed in connection cabinets. The suitable product for this is Nestor Cables connection cabinet NC-2000. The design of NC-2000 connection cabinet takes into account the requirements due to cable termination, patch cord management and heat load of active equipment. Cabinets are factory assembled and equipped including for example patch cord guides, fixing and earthing bars for incoming cables and grid doors in the front and back sides. The dimensions are 2000 x 800 x 600 mm and 2000 x 800 x 800 mm.

Optical fibre patch cords

For connections in power substations, joint cabinets and wind power plants Nestor Cables offers single fibre (simplex) and two fibre (duplex) patch cords with SC and LC connectors. The standard length of patch cords is 2 m, but also other lengths are available