Recent developments mark substantial progress for the East Anglia THREE offshore wind farm, according to Niall Armstrong of ScottishPower Renewables.

The East Anglia THREE offshore wind farm project is advancing rapidly, with several key milestones recently achieved, signifying significant progress towards its completion. Niall Armstrong, Electricity Transmission Execution Manager at ScottishPower Renewables, expressed his excitement about the project, which is poised to provide renewable energy to more than 1.3 million homes once it becomes operational in 2026.

“This is a truly exciting period for us,” Armstrong said. “We’ve reached a number of crucial milestones recently as we work to ensure the safe and effective delivery of the grid infrastructure for East Anglia THREE.”

Situated 69 km off the coast of East Anglia, the wind farm’s grid infrastructure includes an offshore converter station, export cables, and an onshore converter station. These components are essential for transferring the electricity generated by the wind farm to the national grid. The project will be ScottishPower Renewables’ (SPR) first high-voltage direct current (HVDC) offshore wind connection – and, as Armstrong noted, it certainly won’t be the last.

“As offshore wind projects increase in scale, the use of HVDC connections is becoming increasingly common,” he said. “East Anglia THREE will be the largest wind farm ever built by SPR and our parent company, Iberdrola, worldwide.”

Advancing Towards Completion

Construction of the onshore converter station near Ipswich began in August 2022, followed by the start of the offshore converter station fabrication in November 2022. Over one million hours have been dedicated to the project since then.

One of the major achievements came in May 2023, with the completion of the initial phase of topside fabrication for the offshore converter station. At this stage, the structure was transported from Romania to Norway for the next phase of electrical equipment installation. Once completed, the offshore converter station will weigh more than 9,000 tonnes and will be capable of operating automatically without a permanent crew. The installation is scheduled to be transported to the wind farm site next year.

Significant progress is also being made on the onshore front. The civil works at the onshore converter station are nearing completion, enabling the transportation of four massive converter transformers from Ipswich Port to the site. These transformers, manufactured in Germany, were so large that they required special, slow-moving transport vehicles to be moved.

“We’re approaching the stage where all the electrical equipment is manufactured and tested,” Armstrong added. “Throughout the remainder of the year, we’ll be transporting this equipment to both the onshore and offshore converter stations, while simultaneously producing the export cables for both the onshore and offshore cable routes.”

A Robust Supply Chain

The success of East Anglia THREE relies not only on the dedicated team at SPR but also on a wide network of companies and service providers. This includes specialists in transport, equipment suppliers, engineering firms, ports, and even archaeologists.

“It’s truly inspiring to see how all the meticulous planning is coming together to deliver SPR’s largest project to date,” Armstrong said. “It’s a source of immense pride to be part of a project like this, working with such talented individuals within SPR and across the supply chain. Everyone involved is putting in a tremendous effort to create a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable future for us all.”

With these recent achievements and more on the horizon, the East Anglia THREE project is set to establish a new benchmark for renewable energy in the UK, reinforcing its status as a groundbreaking development in the pursuit of a sustainable future.