Triton Knoll confirms reduction in onshore cable circuits

Triton Knoll has confirmed a reduction in the number of onshore cable circuits it will need to build in order to transport power from the offshore wind farm to the national grid network.

The changes will help to reduce the overall construction footprint of the project and will help realise planned reductions in costs, while still ensuring the delivery of maximum power to UK homes and businesses.

This is the innogy-owned project’s latest achievement, resulting from collaboration with its lead contractors to optimise the design and installation of the onshore electrical system. It follows the removal of the planned Intermediate Electrical Compound in September, which was originally expected to be built near Orby.

innogy’s Triton Knoll Project Director Julian Garnsey, said: “Our  design optimisation, carried out in partnership with UK contractors  J Murphy & Sons and Siemens Transmission & Distribution Ltd, is continuing to help deliver the cost and impact reductions anticipated by the project. We’re very pleased to be able to deliver maximum power from this decreased number of circuits, thereby reducing the project’s local construction footprint.”

The cable network of the onshore electrical system is being constructed in two sections, and connects the offshore network to the onshore national grid distribution network. The number of cable circuits have been reduced as follows:

• A reduction from six circuits of three cables each to two circuits of three cables each at 220kV in order to transmit the High Voltage AC (HVAC) electricity from the transition joint bays at the landfall near Anderby to the proposed Triton Knoll onshore substation. This section of the onshore cable will be installed by onshore cable contractor J Murphy & Sons (JMS).
• A reduction from four circuits of three cables each to two circuits of three cables each at 400kVin order to transmit the electricity from the new Triton Knoll onshore substation to the existing National Grid substation at Bicker Fen, Boston. This section of the route is managed by substation contractor Siemens Transmission and Distribution Ltd (STDL).

Triton Knoll is an innogy-owned offshore wind farm, and has a planned installed capacity of 860MW⁽¹⁾, capable of supplying the equivalent of over 800,000 UK households per year with renewable electricity.

The project was awarded a Contract For Difference ⁽²⁾ in September 2017, and expects to trigger a capital expenditure investment of around £2billion into much needed UK energy infrastructure. This will enable the delivery of some of the lowest cost energy generation for UK consumers.

It is now progressing towards a financial investment decision later this summer (2018) with full onshore construction starting shortly after, and offshore construction starting in late 2019. First energy generation could be as early as mid-Q1 2021, with the project expecting to begin commissioning in 2021.