RWE expands O&M base in mid-Wales

In a move that will expand its operations and maintenance (O&M) base in Wales, renewable energy developer RWE npower renewables, the UK subsidiary of RWE Innogy, has opened a new wind farm service centre in mid-Wales.

With this, the company will almost double its current O&M workforce in Wales and will take up a second business unit in Parc Derwen Fawr, one of the Welsh Assembly Government’s greenest business parks. The expansion will see RWE nPower Renewables increase its Llanidloes-based workforce from 14 to 26 staff over the next three years, with eight new posts already appointed.

The firm initially set up offices in 1994 in Llanidloes, from where it operates, manages and maintains its expanding portfolio of onshore wind farms in Wales.

Galloper wind farm gets nod from Crown Estate

The U.K. Crown Estate has approved RWE Innogy´s UK subsidiary RWE npower renewables and Scottish & Southern Energy’s plan for a 500 MW offshore wind farm in the vicinity of the Outer Gabbard sandbank off the Suffolk coast.

The proposed wind farm will be called Galloper Wind Farm.

The contract for expanding existing offshore development areas was put out to tender by The Crown Estate last summer.

The area to be developed by the project partners is situated in two arrays approximately 30 kilometres from the Suffolk coast, off south-east England, in the vicinity of the Outer Gabbard sandbank and to the east of the Galloper sandbank. The turbines would be constructed in water depths of 30 to 40 metres.

The area is adjacent to the site where RWE npower renewables and SSE are currently constructing the Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm, a 500 MW project that is planned to come on-stream in 2012.

RWE Innogy mentioned that the opportunity to develop a wind farm close to the Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm site has a number of advantages. Not only is it an apt site for a wind farm, there is already the necessary infrastructure in place and, if consented, it would benefit from the long-term operational and maintenance activities due to the close proximity of the two wind farms. RWE Innogy already operates the offshore wind farms North Hoyle (60 MW) and Rhyl Flats (90 MW) through its UK subsidiary RWE npower renewables.

A grid connection was secured with National Grid in 2009.The application documents should be submitted this year with the decision expected in 2012. The project will be one of the first to undergo the Infrastructure Planning Commission’s (IPC) application processs. The IPC is an independent body set up last year to fast track applications for nationally significant infrastructure projects.

Reuters reported that both the Conservative Party, which won the most seats in the general election on May 6 but no overall majority, and the Liberal Democrats have pledged to abolish the IPC.

Vestas bags 49 MW turbine order from Canada

Wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has won an order from Markham, Ontario-based International Power Canada for 27 wind turbines with total capacity of 49 MW for the Pointe Aux Roches project in southwestern Ontario, Canada.

The order for Vestas’ V90-1.8 MW wind turbines includes a five-year service and maintenance agreement.

The turbines will be delivered in late 2010, with commissioning of the project expected by the first half of 2011.

The Pointe Aux Roches project will be built under Ontario’s feed-in tariff (FiT) programme and implemented by the Ontario Power Authority.

International Power Canada, a subsidiary of electricity generating company International Power, is also nearing completion on the Harrow project consisting of 24 units of the V82-1.65 MW turbine near Lake Erie in Ontario scheduled for commissioning in May this year. The two companies first worked together in 2006 on a project built using Ontario’s Renewable Energy Standard Offer Programme, comprising 24 V82-1.65 MW turbines.

Last month, Vestas received an order from the Red Lily Wind Energy Partnership for 16 V82-1.65 MW wind turbines for the Red Lily Wind Project to be developed by Oakville, Ontario-based Algonquin Power in southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada. As of 31 December 2009, Vestas had supplied 953 turbines to Canada.

EU backs TWENTIES Project

The European Union has presented the TWENTIES Project, an initiative to advance the development and implementation of new technologies that facilitate the widespread integration of wind power generation into the European electricity system.

The Twenties project will last three years and will count on a total budget close to €60 million, of which €32 million will be financed by the European Union.

Red Eléctrica de España, Transmission System Operator (TSO) of the Spanish electricity system, is the company appointed to coordinate this initiative.

The initiative will involve 26 companies and institutions from the electricity sector. The objective of this group will be to remove, by means of six demonstrations, barriers that make it difficult to incorporate more wind power energy -onshore and offshore- into the electricity system, as well as to increase the support this generation can give to the system. The purpose is to demonstrate the benefits of new technologies to full scale, coupled with innovative approaches to the management of the electricity system.

Iberdrola Renovables will represent Spain through more than 200 wind turbines with a total capacity of 500 MW that will be connected to the electricity grid using a new method for controlling voltage and frequency at different levels of the electricity system. This work will be jointly controlled by the control centres of Iberdrola Renovables (CORE) and Red Eléctrica de España (CECRE).

The works to achieve increased flexibility in the electrical energy transmission networks will be performed by two TSOs: the Belgian TSO, Elia, through sensors and control devices which avoid possible large scale instabilities induced by the wind farms in the region; and the Spanish TSO, Red Eléctrica de España.

The difficulties associated with offshore wind farms will be addressed from a security viewpoint. The French TSO, RTE, will demonstrate protection and control components required to develop a multi-terminal direct current grid (HVDC).  

Meanwhile the Danish TSO, Energinet , will demonstrate the viability of balancing generation loses caused during extreme meteorological phenomena, through coordination between off-shore wind farms and hydroelectric generation, (located in this case in Norway). 

Entities involved in the TWENTIES Project include:

Red Eléctrica de España S.A.U. (Spain), Dong Energy Power (Denmark), Iberdrola Renovables (Spain), RTE EDF Transport (France), Elia System Operator (Belgium), ENERGINET.dk (Denmark), Risø DTU (Denmark),  Electricité de France (France), Areva T&D (UK), Tennet (Netherlands), University, Pontificia de Comillas (Spain),  Fraunhofer IWES (Germany), SINTEF Energy Research (Norway), Gamesa Innovation & Techn. (Spain), SIEMENS Wind Power (Germany), 50Hertz Transmission (Germany), EWEA, European Wind Association, (Belgium), CORESO (Belgium), ABB Asea Brown Boveri (Spain), INESC-PORTO (Portugal), University College Dublin (Ireland), ENEA-Ricerca sul Sist. Elettrico (Italy), University of Strathclyde (UK), University Liege (Belgium), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), and Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium).

Offshore Marine Management bags two contracts

Subsea cable specialist Offshore Marine Management (OMM) has won contracts to carry out work for the Burbo Bank offshore wind farm and Barrow offshore (BOWind) wind farm.

BOWind has awarded the survey inspection and remedial works contract for the Barrow Offshore Wind Farm export cable to OMM. The Barrow work will include the subsea inspection of the entire 27km export cable from Heysham to the wind farm site as well as any remedial operations involving jetting, diving and mattressing that might be found necessary.

OMM has also been awarded the cable surveys contract for Burbo Bank by developer Dong Energy.

The Burbo Bank work will include the subsea inspection of the three 8.6km export cables from the wind farm to Wallasey, Liverpool and the 500m of inter array cable.

The above works will begin in early May and are scheduled for completion by the end of June 2010.

Barrow has encountered water depths of drying heights through to 30m and Burbo Bank of drying heights to 5m. OMM will provide shallow water solutions in both the projects.

OMM will provide its own survey and cable teams, equipment and software throughout and will subcontract Seatrench for the jetting operations and Osiris Marine Services for the diving aspects of the remedial works.

Bremerhaven to house RWE Innogy’s base port

RWE Innogy will use Bremerhaven container port as a base port for constructing its offshore Nordsee Ost wind farm from mid-2011 following the agreement that it entered into with Eurogate Container Terminal Bremerhaven GmbH on use of areas in the Bremerhaven container port.

Though financial details weren't disclosed, the two parties have agreed a two-year lease with on the use of areas in Bremerhaven container port. The lease agreements cover a 17-hectare area and a directly adjacent 400 meter quay. 

From the base, 48 six MW wind turbines will be pre-assembled, shipped and assembled at the wind farm site some 35 kilometers north of the island of Helgoland. 

The 295 MW Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm is due to be commissioned in 2013.

The areas on the container terminal also have to be prepared. This will entail Eurogate moving all containers currently stored in the area as well as disconnecting certain container gantries and shifting these to the north. RWE Innogy is also planning to lease office space with around 50 workplaces. 

The newly constructed offshore-base port will see all components for the wind power plants being stored, pre-assembled and loaded for shipping. The actual construction of the wind farm will commence when the foundations are constructed at a water depth of 22-25 meters.

OMM supplies guard vessels for Europe projects

Subsea cable specialist Offshore Marine Management (OMM) has supplied guard vessels to Europe’s subsea cable projects.

The company also supplied a guard vessel and management services for a major European HVDC inter-connector cable repair.

OMM continues to supply five guard vessels to Transpower for the Borwin1 export cable project, which has required guard vessel supply since July last year. OMM provided 15 guard vessels with full management services at the height of the project last year.

Providing further details, OMM shared that the Bounty 2 from Rederij Groen was on site throughout the de-burial, repair and re-burial operations, supporting three separate vessels for each phase.

The German marine authority (BSH) stipulated that the repair required a guard vessel due to its proximity to the TSS Terschelling traffic separation zone.

Support for offshore wind energy projects in Scotland

A significant step has been initiated for the development of offshore wind energy projects in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has launched a 12-week consultation detailing draft plans to capitalise on Scotland’s potential in renewables.

The Strategic Environmental Assessment and Development Plan for Offshore Wind sets out proposals for the short, medium and long-term up to 2020 and beyond.

The proposals include:

• Progressing the 10 sites for potential offshore wind energy development recently identified by The Crown Estate. Environment and technical assessment has concluded there are no significant environmental effects which cannot be avoided or reduced through appropriate project planning and development
• The mapping of key technical and environment constraints to identify the most feasible areas for development, and further evaluate of these areas in relation to other users of the sea; most notably shipping and commercial fishing sectors
• A commitment from the Scottish Government to consider reviewing the plan every two years, in recognition of the fast pace of change within the offshore wind sector and marine environment.

The consultation will run for 12 weeks until August 16, 2010.

As part of the consultation process, a series of stakeholder consultation workshops will be taken forward by Marine Scotland in the coming weeks, to help explain the approach used to develop and assess the plan, and to further explore the environmental and sectoral issues raised in the process.

RWE npower Renewables to exit Inch Cape project

RWE npower Renewables has decided to pull out of the 905 MW Inch Cape offshore wind farm project.

The company notified SeaEnergy Renewables Limited (SERL) and The Crown Estate of its desire to exit the Inch Cape project. The decision is being attributed to the considerable size of the project’s other onshore and offshore renewable generation commitments.

Aberdeen-based SERL, which owns a 25% stake in the project, has indicated its desire to continue developing the wind farm by entering into talks with The Crown Estate.

“We are also very pleased at the prospect of potentially increasing our equity stake in what is a great project,” said SERL CEO Joel Staadecker.

In February 2009, The Crown Estate awarded the Inch Cape site to a consortium comprising SERL, SeaEnergy’s 80% owned subsidiary and RWE npower renewables as a part of the Scottish Territorial Waters leasing round.

However, with RWE exiting, the Crown Estate and SERL have entered into discussions to establish a Memorandum of Understanding that will provide terms for the delivery of Inch Cape and may increase SERL’s interest in the project.