Moray East, Triton Knoll offshore transmission licences set to be tendered

Ofgem will open a tender round for the offshore transmission licences for the Moray East and Triton Knoll offshore wind farms on 30 November.

The authority issued a notice on 12 November, informing that the projects fulfilled all necessary conditions in accordance with regulation, including the submitted requests for qualifying projects, received payments and security from each of the developers, as well as that the developers have met the conditions specified in paragraph 2 of Schedule 2 to the Tender Regulations.

The 950 MW Moray East offshore wind farm, scheduled to be operational in 2022, will comprise 100 MHI Vestas 9.5 MW wind turbines and three Siemens Energy offshore transformer modules (OTMs).

All three OTMs at Moray East have been in place since mid-September and all three export cables were laid and pulled in by mid-October.

At the 857 MW Triton Knoll, both offshore substation platforms (OSPs) have been in place since June, with the two lengths of the 220kV export cables, which link the two offshore substation platforms to the onshore electrical network, installed in August.

Wind turbine installation at Triton Knoll, which will feature 90 MHI Vestas 9.5 MW turbines, is expected to start in the first quarter of 2021.