The team building the Dogger Bank wind farm has started offshore construction work off the Yorkshire coast.
Power cable supplier NKT is leading the work to install the Dogger Bank A nearshore high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable. This will connect the first phase of the wind farm more than 130km off the coast to a landfall point at Ulrome in East Riding.
Aberdeenshire-based manufacturer ACE Winches and horizontal directional drilling (HDD) service provider LMR Drilling UK of Birkenhead are supporting NKT with this work.
NKT is supplying and installing the onshore and offshore HVDC cable for all three phases of the project. The company will use its cable-laying vessel NKT Victoria to install the 320kV DC subsea cable system in the challenging North Sea conditions.
The current phase of the works will continue throughout 2022. Work on the Dogger Bank B and Dogger Bank C export cables will start in the consecutive years.
Dogger Bank will be the first HVDC connected wind farm in the UK.
Dogger Bank wind farm project director Steve Wilson said: “This is an exciting time for everyone involved in this project as we celebrate installing the first nearshore HVDC export cable safely and on time.
“With the first foundations due to be installed later this year and the first turbines scheduled for installation in 2023, we’re now well on our way to achieving first power from this unrivalled global renewable energy asset.”
A consortium of French civil engineering firm Eiffage and Dutch offshore foundations specialist Sif are installing the foundations for the first two phases of the Dogger Bank wind farm.
NKT head of project execution Darren Fennell commented: “As a long term high-voltage DC technology partner to Equinor, Eni Plenitude and SSE, NKT is excited to have reached the installation phase of the Dogger Bank A near shore cables.”
LMR Drilling managing director Jez Seamans added: “It has been a fantastic project to be involved in, with the HDD landfalls forming a small but crucial part of the overall project linking the offshore power generating system with the onshore grid. It is great to see the first of the cables being installed into these landfall ducts, another step in the ongoing decarbonisation of UK power.”
The Dogger Bank wind farm is being built in three 1.2GW phases known as A, B and C. Onshore construction for Dogger Bank A and B started in 2020.
Once completed in 2026, Dogger Bank is expected to be the largest offshore wind farm in the world.
The project is a joint venture between SSE Renewables (40%), Equinor (40%) and Eni Plenitude (20%).
