Siemens bags grid connection contract for Triton Knoll offshore wind farm

Siemens Energy Management has bagged a contract from Innogy to design, supply and build the grid connection for the 860MW Triton Knoll offshore wind farm in the UK North Sea.

The Triton Knoll offshore wind farm is being developed, 32km off the Lincolnshire coast, with an investment of £2 billion by Innogy in partnership with J-Power and Kansai Electric Power.

As part of the contract, the energy management division of Siemens, will handle construction of a new onshore substation located at Bicker Fen and also offshore infrastructure which includes a couple of offshore transformer modules (OTMs).

Siemens says that its offshore transformer module is considerably smaller in both size and weight comparison to traditional alternating current platforms.

Siemens secures grid connection contract for Triton Knoll offshore wind farm in the North Sea. Photo courtesy of Siemens plc.

The German engineering company said that construction of a new bellmouth entry point and that of a 3.8km access road to the new substation construction location have commenced.

Siemens Energy Management will begin construction of the onshore substation of the Triton Knoll offshore wind farm early 2019. Its engineers will be closely working with the project’s team prior to the start of construction.

Carl Ennis – Managing Director for Siemens Energy Management, commenting on the Triton Knoll offshore wind farm contract, said: “This is an important project to deliver clean, green energy to UK homes and businesses and we’re delighted to be a partner. We have a strong track record in delivering grid access projects and look forward to implementing our market-leading technology at Triton Knoll.”

Siemens plans to deliver the project under its contract from its Manchester office and expects a number of additional supply chain contracts to be available for UK supply chain firms.

Julian Garnsey – Triton Knoll offshore wind farm project director said: “Siemens share our goal to use our investments to the benefit of UK businesses and suppliers, and their involvement represents a very real opportunity for competitive regional and UK companies to benefit from our project.”

The Triton Knoll offshore wind project will be equipped with 90 V164-9.5 MW turbines from MHI Vestas, which will be capable of meeting the power consumption needs of more than 800,000 UK homes upon its commissioning.

Recently, Innogy achieved financial close on the UK offshore wind farm. A group of 15 banks will provide nearly £1.75 billion debt facilities for the Triton Knoll wind farm.

Last week, K2 Management was given a construction monitoring contract for the offshore wind project under which it will handle monitoring of permitting, design, manufacturing and construction works and project expenditure.

On the other hand, Murphy & Sons holds a £100 million worth construction contract for the Triton Knoll offshore wind farm, which is owned 59% by Innogy, 25% by J-Power and 16% by Kansai Electric Power.