UK: Kent offshore wind farm all powered up

Matthew Green, Vattenfall’s Project Manager for the 15 turbine, 49.5MW Kentish Flats Extension (KFE), said today [14 September]: “It’s a little over two weeks since we generated power and exported to the grid from the very first turbine; now all 15 MHI Vestas turbines are generating low carbon power. To achieve full power so quickly and to do it safely is a strong performance from all of the technicians and engineers involved.”

Vattenfall generated first power from KFE on 29 August and two weeks later, at around 5pm on Saturday 12 September, all 15 turbines were up and running. Final testing of all 15 turbines continues.

The offshore construction of KFE started in May this year, 8km off Herne Bay and Whitstable on the Kent coast. The wind farm is on course for completion this autumn. Over a twelve month period KFE is expected to generate enough power to meet the equivalent annual electricity demand of around 35,000 UK households.

In the UK, Vattenfall operates 540MW of offshore wind capacity from three sites and has more than 3.6GW of potential capacity in its UK offshore pipeline. Vattenfall also develops, builds and operates onshore wind across the UK, including the 76 turbine, 228MW Pen y Cymoedd project in south Wales and the 56MW Ray wind farm in Northumberland, both under construction.