Vattenfall ready to exercise step-in rights offshore Germany, already seeking main contractors

Swedish energy company Vattenfall will participate in the tender for the N-7.2 offshore wind area in the German North Sea and will exercise its step-in rights if the company’s bid is not selected in the auction.

Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) put the N-7.2 zone out to tender at the end of February.

The area will support the development of up to 980 MW of capacity, and the price of the electricity is capped at EUR 64 per MWh.

The bidder with the lowest subsidy requirement for a wind farm in the area will be awarded the contract.

Following the selection of the winner, Vattenfall has the right to step-in and match the winning bid to secure the rights to develop an offshore wind farm at the site.

The step-in rights were awarded to companies whose projects had not made it through the second transitional tenders in previous auctions.

Vattenfall has confirmed to offshoreWIND.biz and Offshore Energy that the company will participate in the ongoing auction for the N-7.2 area and if necessary exercise the step-in rights.

Vattenfall has already issued contract notices seeking a supplier of wind turbines and providers of offshore installation services for the project.

Through Vattenfall Atlantis 1 und Global Tech 2 Offshore Wind GmbH, the developer has put out a tender to award a qualifying supplier for the scope of the turbine supply agreement and service and warranty agreement for the offshore wind farm project at the N-7.2 area.

The turbine supply agreement includes all the required work for the supply of the turbines including, but not limited to, design, engineering, manufacture, procurement, transport, delivery, storage, load-out, installation, testing, commissioning, test on completion, initial operation and maintenance of the turbines including towers until taking over, and a five-year turbine defects notification period including the provision of any jack-up vessel required during the defects notification period.

The service and warranty agreement will encompass a full-service scope for the wind turbines for a period which is currently foreseen to be 25 years.

The tender will remain open until 8 April.

The special purpose company is also in the market for offshore wind farm installation logistics for N-7.2.

This tender is divided into three lots covering the installation of foundations, the inter-array cables, and the wind turbines. This tender will remain open until 6 April.