Eight bidders named for offshore transmission projects in the UK

UK energy regulator Ofgem has named eight bidders which have qualified to compete for three more high-voltage transmission links with offshore wind farms as part of Ofgem E-Serve’s latest competitive tender process.

The list of bidders will compete for the links to the Gwynt y Môr, Lincs and London Array (phase 1) offshore windfarms.

These are three of the UK’s largest offshore windfarms, representing over 1.4GW of renewable power. The next stage of the process is to select a shortlist of bidders in spring 2011, which will then go through to the final stage to select the winning tenders this summer.

Bidders that have qualified to proceed to the qualification to tender stage are:

• Balfour Beatty Capital
• Blue Transmission (a consortium of Macquarie Capital Group, Barclays Infrastructure Funds Management and Frontier Power)
• Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings /Hongkong Electric International
• Green Energy Transmission (a consortium of Equitix Ltd and AMP Capital Investors)
• Mitsubishi Corporation
• National Grid Offshore
• Transmission Capital Partners (a consortium of Transmission Capital Ltd, International Public Partnerships Ltd and Amber Infrastructure)
• Ventran Consortium (a consortium of BRITEL Fund Trustees (as custodian of BT Pension Scheme) and Universities Superannuation Scheme)

Ultimately, the winning bidders will then own and operate the links for the next 20 years.

This is the first stage in the second round of tenders in the GB offshore transmission regime, and follows the success of the first round for £1.1 billion of transmission links, which attracted almost £4 billion of investment appetite and is expected to deliver savings of around £350 million.

Tenders for a further three projects – Humber Gateway, West of Duddon Sands and Race Bank – are expected to start next spring. In total these six projects represent £1.9 billion of offshore transmission links to connect some 2.8 GW of offshore wind.

TenneT orders new grid connection

Electricity transmission operator TenneT has decided to commission its seventh offshore grid connection to link North Sea wind farms to the onshore electricity grid.

The contract for the 864MW project SylWin1 has gone to a consortium of Siemens Energy and Prysmian Powerlink. A new substation in Büttel, Schleswig-Holstein, will be built as the onshore grid connection point for SylWin1.

Construction work onshore is to start in early 2012; the grid connection is scheduled for completion by the beginning of 2014.

TenneT is investing a total of almost €1 billion in the SylWin1 project and necessary ancillary systems. 

Even though TenneT acknowledged that significance of its seventh offshore connection, it added that in order to bring North Sea electricity to the point of use, approvals for the electricity lines onshore are needed as well as the offshore grid connections. 

“We need acceptance for the projects and a framework which facilitates faster grid expansion if green energy is supposed to reach the consumer,” said Martin Fuchs, chairman of the Management Board.

£95m package to upgrade Scotland’s electricity networks

UK energy regulator Ofgem has finalised a £95 million investment package over the next two years to increase the capacity of Scotland’s power networks.

More than £80 million of the funding will be spent by National Grid Electricity Transmission and Scottish Power Transmission Ltd on a package of projects to increase the amount of electricity that can flow between the high voltage networks of England and Scotland. This will help the export of renewable electricity from Scotland.

Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission will spend a further £11.5 million on upgrading its network to connect generation in the north of Scotland.

Ofgem has also allowed National Grid to spend £1 million on initial development work on a proposed new power cable linking Pembroke and Wylfa in Wales. This link may be required to accommodate new nuclear generation in north Wales and offshore wind generation in the Irish Sea.

This package is the next stage in funding the major programme of extra investment in the period to 2020 being developed by the transmission companies to help meet carbon targets. It follows on from the decision announced in January 2010 to fund an initial tranche of investment, totalling £319 million, by the transmission companies in their current price control (2007-2013).

France shares its offshore wind ambition

President Nicolas Sarkozy has reportedly said that France was seeking bidders for a $13.6 billion contract to build the country’s first offshore wind-power facilities.

France will build 600 offshore wind turbines with a total capacity of 3,000 MW, said President Sarkozy, adding they would be built in the western regions of Loire-Atlantique, Brittany and Normandy, according to a report filed by Reuters.

“We are launching this first tender covering five development areas for offshore wind power in order to give the industry's players greater visibility,” Sarkozy said.

The tender will be opened in the second quarter of this year.

Earlier this month, Alstom and EDF Energies Nouvelles signed an exclusive agreement to respond jointly to a call for tenders that the French government is planning to launch for offshore wind projects. The agreement covers the future construction of offshore wind farms developed by EDF Energies Nouvelles and its partners and that will be equipped with offshore wind turbines manufactured by Alstom.

This alliance is intended to help meet the French government’s objectives of installing 6,000MW in offshore wind energy capacity in France by 2020. Under the agreement between the two groups, Alstom is the exclusive supplier of 6 MW offshore wind turbines, based on leading technologies available on the market from 2013 onwards.

America’s wind industry built 5,115 MW of wind power last year

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has highlighted that wind power industry in the US continues to endure a boom-bust cycle because of the lack of long-term, predictable federal policies.

The boom-and-bust cycle that has developed due to short-term incentives is not conducive to business investment and increased employment, according to the Association.

America’s wind industry built 5,115 MW of wind power last year, barely half of 2009’s record pace, but entered 2011 with over 5,600 MW currently under construction.

The Association reported that 3,195 MW of wind-powered electric generating capacity came online in the fourth quarter of 2010. That performance was below the 4,113 MW installed in the same period in 2009, but a leap from the third quarter of 2010, when only 670 MW were installed. The US finished the year with a total of 5,115 MW of new wind power.

Buoyed by a one-year extension of the 1603 Investment Tax Credit for renewable energy in the final days of the 111th Congress, the industry entered the new year with over 5,600 MW of electric power currently under construction, well above the same time a year earlier. Further projects are expected to start up in time to meet the new construction deadline for the tax credit, now set to expire at the end of 2011. The industry is likely to finish 2011 ahead of 2010 numbers.

Wind’s costs have dropped over the past two years, with power purchase agreements being signed in the range of 5 to 6 cents per kilowatt-hour recently, said Elizabeth Salerno, AWEA Director of Industry Data & Analysis.

Salerno pointed out that considering the uncertainty around natural gas and power prices as the economy recovers, wind’s long-term price stability is even more valued.

“We expect that utilities will move to lock in more wind contracts, given the cost-competitive nature of wind in today’s market,” said Salerno.

Total U.S. wind capacity now stands at 40,180 MW, an increase in capacity of 15% over the start of 2010.

Foundation contract signed for Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm

RWE npower renewables has signed a contract worth around €240 million with a German-Danish group of companies that will supply turbine foundations on the 576MW Gwynt y Mor offshore wind farm, off the North Wales coast.

The contract has been awarded to the specialist consortium of Bladt Industries and EEW Special Pipe Construction.

With this move, Gwynt y Môr is now well positioned to move ahead with offshore construction works by the end of 2011. Construction of the €2billion Gwynt y Môr project began in November 2009. The offshore wind farm is being constructed 13 kilometres off the North Wales coast, in water depths of 12-28 metres.

The project is a shared investment between partners RWE Innogy, Stadtwerke München and Siemens.

RWE npower renewables is currently finalising the establishment of construction port facilities close to the site of the wind farm. At the port, final preparations will be made to the foundations before they are then installed. The port will also be the base for the installation vessels, engineers and technicians.

The first foundations are scheduled for delivery into the UK in late 2011 for installation shortly after. It is anticipated foundation installation work will be completed by late 2013.

Van Oord, Typhoon Offshore sign agreement

Marine contractor Van Oord and green investment company Typhoon Offshore have signed a letter of intent for the construction of the BARD-Netherlands offshore wind farm.

The wind farm, which 600 MW output capacity, will consist of two adjoining wind farms with a capacity of 300 MW each, located 55 km north of the island of Schiermonnikoog.

The contract value for Van Oord is in the range of €300-400 million. 

Typhoon Offshore will be responsible for financing the project. Once the financial arrangements have been made, the cooperation agreement will be finalised in the final quarter of 2011. According to planning, the construction will start in 2012.

Van Oord will be responsible for inspecting the sea bed and for producing the detailed engineering design for the wind farm.

As the EPC contractor, Van Oord will also be responsible for purchasing  materials, installing the foundations and wind turbines as well as laying the cables. The new installation vessel for offshore wind projects will be deployed on the project for a period of two years.

Vestas opens a new office in Romania

Vestas has opened a new office in the Romanian capital of Bucharest.

The office will serve the Romanian wind energy market, support Vestas’ activities in other Eastern European countries, and be a resource to assist the future development of wind energy in Romania and the region.

As of June 30, 2010, Vestas has installed 22 wind turbines in Romania, with a total capacity of 43.66 MW.

In Romania, Vestas employs 31 people in sales, service, engineering, project management and marketing in Bucharest and a project office in Constanta.