Atkins to Design Substations for Race Bank OWF

The contract will see Atkins provide detailed substation designs for Race Bank, one of DONG Energy’s major offshore wind development projects in the UK. Atkins is also designing the substations for DONG Energy’s Walney and Burbo extension projects.

Benj Sykes, UK country manager for DONG Energy Wind Power , said: “DONG Energy has a tough target to cut the cost of offshore wind by 35 – 40 per cent by 2020. We are doing this through standardising the building of a wind farm. Atkins is working with us to provide a design for five substations that can be applied to three of our projects. This will enable a production line approach to fabrication, rather than a bespoke solution each time and will reduce costs without compromising safety and reliability. It becomes more like buying off the shelf than ordering a unique product and that brings cost savings.”

Dave Parkin, managing director of Atkins’ Power and Renewables business , said: “With over 30 years looking after oil and gas offshore structures, we can directly apply lessons learned in terms of construction and operation in deeper waters, foundation and jacket technology, the use of heavy-lift vessels and asset maintenance offshore. Our UK based team will be working together with DONG Energy to apply the lessons on these large, complex projects enabling us to set new benchmarks in stripping out any fat for an industry that needs to become more and more competitive with other energy sources.”

Minister for Business and Energy, Michael Fallon , said: “I want to see more UK firms throughout the supply chain profiting from the growth in sustainable power. This contract is a promising step towards the creation of more highly skilled jobs as we establish a dependable and affordable energy mix.”

The project, located in the Greater Wash area off the east coast of England, has a capacity of up to 580 megawatt with offshore construction due to commence from 2017.