Fall of Warness Test Site
The tidal test site at the Fall of Warness, to the west of the island of Eday, was chosen for its high velocity marine currents which reach almost 4m/sec (7.8 knots) at spring tides. The facility offers five test berths at depths ranging from 25m to 50m in an area 2km across and approximately 4km in length.
Interactive view looking over the test site towards Eday
(Please hover over the red markers to expand information)
View Eday Substation panorama
View Kirkwall Pier panorama
View Hatston Pier panorama
From each developer berth, the subsea cables follow back along the seabed and then pass under the beach and into an external housing next to the substation. An adjacent laydown area then provides an optional area for developers to use conditioning equipment for converting from the level at which they are generate to grid compliant electricity. Underground ducts then connect the cables through to the switchboard in the substation building. The substation building has four separate areas: the HV switchroom, communications room, personnel room and the standby generator room.
The adjacent building on site holds the Scottish and Southern Energy transformer where the 11KV is transformed to 33KV. Eday is linked to both Westray and Sandy by subsea cables that form a ring through the Northern Isles and feed into the national grid. The spur connecting the substation to the grid was ploughed in using equipment brought in from Germany, as this avoids overhead poles, and the line is now invisible.
A small poster which illustrates the tidal test site facilities can be downloaded here (1.89MB) and further details of the site infrastructure can be found under the General Info section.