The ground-breaking European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) has generated power for the first time. Clean power from the pioneering offshore wind farm, developed by Swedish energy group Vattenfall, is being successfully exported to the National Grid from the first of the 11 turbines to go live.
The power was exported via the scheme’s innovative 66 kilovolt subsea cabling – the first time that cabling of this capacity has been installed on a commercial offshore wind project in Scotland.
Gunnar Groebler, Vattenfall’s head of Business Area Wind, said: “Generating power from the EOWDC for the first time, secured by Europe’s technological leadership in offshore wind, gets us to a future free from fossil fuel faster. I look forward to full power later in the summer.”
Adam Ezzamel, Vattenfall’s EOWDC project director, said: “We have overcome major engineering and technical challenges to achieve first power on the cutting edge EOWDC thanks to the collective expertise of Vattenfall, and our contractors MHI Vestas, Boskalis and Murphy. Our priority now is to fully commission the windfarm safely throughout the summer.”
He added: “First power from EOWDC reinforces north east Scotland’s status as Europe’s energy capital and will help establish the region as an international centre for offshore wind generation.”
Power from the turbines at the EOWDC is being exported through two ‘strings’ of 4km export cable with a capacity of 66kV. Compared with conventional cabling of 33kV less inter-array cabling is required leading to reduced construction cost. Overall, just over 21km of cabling has been installed from the EOWDC to Blackdog substation.
