A German airport operator has closed a tender call looking to procure electricity produced by offshore wind turbines in the country.
While the latest tender notice shows that the procedure ended without an awarded contract, a recent update from the company said that the award procedure was in progress and that the airport operator was in negotiations with various electricity suppliers and wind farm operators.
The process is very complex and will thus most likely continue well into the second half of 2021, the company said in May, adding that this was expected.
In a statement to Offshore Energy – Offshore Wind , a spokesperson from Fraport – the operator of the Frankfurt Airport – said tender procedure was formally discontinued as there were no suitable bids, but that negotiations with companies were ongoing outside a formal bidding process.
“The procedure is being continued as a negotiated procedure without a competitive bidding process. This means that a direct market approach is currently being made to a broad range of bidders. We continue to expect that we will be able to conclude a corresponding supply contract in the current year” , the spokesperson from Fraport said.
Fraport issued a call for tenders around the same time last year, looking to sign a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with an offshore wind developer for a project that is yet to be built off the German coasts and go into service in 2025.
The company seeks to procure around 350 GWh of electricity per year, which corresponds to a peak capacity of around 85 MW, which can cover Fraport’s entire electricity demand at Frankfurt Airport.
The duration of the contract(s) is ten years, with Fraport reserving the right to extend the contract(s) by an additional five-year period.
In the meantime, the airport operator has signed PPAs with several onshore wind farms and, as of 1 July, the company will obtain some of its electricity requirements at Frankfurt Airport from wind turbines for the first time.
The electricity will come from 12 existing onshore wind farms in the German coastal areas, for which Fraport signed a PPA with Energy Air GmbH (subsidiary of Mainova AG), the first wind energy PPA for the airport operator.
The PPA has a duration of 18 months, until 31 December 2022, under which 26 GWh of electricity will come from wind farms in the second half of 2021, increasing to 42 GWh in 2022.
This will cover about ten per cent of Fraport’s electricity demand at Frankfurt Airport by the end of this year, and about 15 per cent during 2022, with upward tendency in the years to come.