PowerChina ZhongNan Developes 500 MW Offshore Wind Farm in Less than One Year
Bentley Applications helped create a digital twin, increasing efficiency while reducing project costs.
July 08, 2025. By News Bureau
Wanting to boost the availability of electricity in the Shandong province of China, Shandong Energy Group initiated development of Bozhong Offshore Wind Farm Site A. It now has the capacity to generate 500 megawatts of power via 60 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 8.35 megawatts. Development also included an onshore centralised control center and a 220-kilovolt offshore booster station. “The project, which pioneers the intersection of submarine cables and oil and gas pipelines, is the largest intelligent, digital wind farm in China that has been built without interruption,” said Wenjie Mi, director at PowerChina ZhongNan Engineering Corporation Limited, the organisation responsible for designing the project.
Bozhong Offshore Wind Farm Site A is the first grid-parity offshore wind power project in Shandong and the first of its type to be approved. When it was activated at the end of 2022, it saved 519,000 tons of coal per year and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 1.26 million tons. However, developing it posed a significant challenge.
Developing Faster than Ever
Though the wind farm was officially approved in February 2022, the project had to be finished at the end of the same year. “As grid parity affects the economic performance of the project, it was necessary to optimise the routing of the submarine cables (bypassing the restricted areas/crossing oil and gas pipelines), the offshore booster station (improving equipment layout to reduce the size and weight of the platform), and other design solutions to reduce the levelised cost of energy (LCOE),” said Mi.
Further complicating the project, the seabed at the site posed complex hydrological and geological conditions, which greatly impacted the design and construction of the foundation structures. At the same time, the engineering quantity of the single-pile foundation needed to be optimised to reduce costs, and the teams had to coordinate a wide range of stakeholders. The designers realised they needed advanced digital technologies and methods to bring the project online so quickly.
Better Planning and Visualisation with a Digital Twin
PowerChina ZhongNan decided that a digital twin created with the assistance of Bentley applications could help the teams overcome the numerous challenges they faced. They started by using ProjectWise as a connected data environment, establishing tight version control and ensuring that all collaborators and stakeholders could access needed information. Then, using MicroStation and Bentley Open applications, they modeled all project elements, including the control center, booster station, piping layouts, and the complex sand table, creating a digital twin of the project.
Rather than simply use out-of-the-box capabilities of Bentley applications, PowerChina ZhongNan supplemented them with their own bespoke solutions. “Leveraging Bentley applications, we developed many auxiliary design tools, such as the intelligent algorithm-based optimisation software for the submarine connector line, a secondary development based on Bentley’s MicroStation that can realise the intelligent construction of the collector line topology scheme,” said Mi. As a result, they intelligently optimised the project site, automating the generation of the collector line. Their digital twin can also simulate weather and wave patterns, pile driving, and power flows.
Speedier Development with Improved Efficiencies
With 3D design, PowerChina ZhongNan improved project design and improved efficiency by 30 percent, shortening construction time by 20 percent. Through careful calculations within SACS and PLAXIS, the company optimised the engineering quality of the foundations and eliminated the need for 8,557 tons of material, greatly lowering development costs. Teams further reduced costs by developing software within MicroStation that enabled them to intersect submarine cables with oil and gas pipelines. “As a result, this project has the lowest cost per kilowatt among the first batch of grid-parity offshore wind farm projects approved,” said Mi.
Because of the improved collaboration and efficiencies, the project began construction in April, hoisted its first turbine in June, and achieved full capacity grid connection in December, setting a record for project planning, approval, construction, and grid connection in the same year. “By virtue of the intelligent construction control system and through collaboration with all project participants including owner, designer, supervisor, and constructor, the project realised visualised, standard, and intelligent construction driven by the data chain,” said Mi. The digital twin is now being used for full lifecycle asset management and maintenance.
Project Summary
Organisation
PowerChina ZhongNan Engineering Corporation Limited
Solution
Process and Power Generation
Location
Dongying, Shandong, China
Project Objectives
- To develop a 500-megawatt offshore wind farm within one calendar year.
- To use digital design to improve efficiency and lower costs.
Project Playbook
Bentley Raceway and Cable Management™, MicroStation®, OpenBuildings®, OpenPlant®, OpenRoads™, PLAXIS®, ProjectWise®, ProStructures™, SACS™
Fast Facts
- Bozhong Offshore Wind Farm Site A now has the capacity to generate 500 megawatts of power via 60 wind turbines.
- The wind farm needed to be completed in less than a year, despite challenging site conditions.
- Teams created a digital twin of the project to optimise design and simulate weather and wave patterns.
- With 3D design, PowerChina ZhongNan improved project design and improved efficiency by 30 percent, shortening construction time by 20 percent.
- The company optimised the engineering quality of the foundations and eliminated the need for 8,557 tons of material, greatly lowering development costs.
- The wind farm saves 519,000 tons of coal per year and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 1.26 million tons.
- Jana Miller, Senior Manager - Industry Marketing, Bentley Systems
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