innogy finds new partners for its Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm

As an integral part of the company’s strategy to pursue a partnership-based approach to realiselarge-scale offshore wind farms, innogy SE, through its subsidiary Innogy Renewables UK Ltd.,has signed an agreement under which the company will sell 41% of its Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farmto Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. (operating under the name J-Power; 25%), through its subsidiaryJP Renewable Europe Company (JPREC), and to Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (16%), through its subsidiary KPIC Netherlands B.V. innogy will retain the majority equity stake (59%). JPREC will procure a part of its investment funds by issuing preferred equity to Development Bank of Japan Inc.

Triton Knoll is an offshore wind project with a planned installed capacity of 860 megawatts (MW).Closing of the transaction is subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board of innogy SE and financial close with the debt funding of the Triton Knoll project, which is expected in the third quarter of 2018.

Makoto Honda, Director and Executive Managing Officer, J-Power, says: “We are very pleased to become a partner in innogy’s Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm project. As the leading provider of wind power in Japan, we are very proud of entering into this overseas offshore wind power project which is a first for a Japanese electric power utility. We are actively continuing to develop new wind power projects both in the domestic market and in the overseas market”.

Hiroshi Nakajima, Managing Executive Officer, International Business and Cooperation Division,Kansai Electric Power Company, adds: “We are very pleased to become a partner of innogy’s Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm project. This is the first case of Japanese electric power utility which has entered into the overseas offshore wind power project. In Europe, since it is predicted that renewable energy will be drastically developed, we are very proud to achieving a new important milestone in the excellent relationship with innogy and J-Power.”

Hans Bünting, COO Renewables of innogy SE, explains: “As we continue to grow our offshore portfolio across the globe, the securing of valued, strategic partnerships is a key objective within our strategy. The signed agreement highlights the attractiveness of our offshore development projects. With J-Power and Kansai Electric Power we have found experienced and reliable partners and we are delighted to be working with them to successfully realise the Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm together.”

Once fully operational, Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm will be capable of supplying the equivalent of 800,000 UK households p.a. with renewable electricity. The planned investment volume amounts to approximately £2 billion (which corresponds to roughly €2.3 billion at the current exchange rate). The project is located 32 kilometres (km) off the coast of Lincolnshire in the east of England.

At the heart of the project, Triton Knoll expects to install 90 of MHI Vestas’ V164-9.5 MW turbines, currently considered to be amongst the most powerful and efficient in the world. innogy will manage the construction as well as operation and maintenance works on behalf of the project partners.

Enabling works are now underway at the site of the project’s onshore electrical system, which includes a 57 km underground cable route, landfall infrastructure and construction of a new onshore substation at Bicker Fen, in Lincolnshire. Full construction of the onshore electrical system is on schedule to begin shortly. Offshore construction is then expected to start in late 2019 and, according to current planning, commissioning of Triton Knoll is expected to start in 2021.

Triton Knoll was awarded a Contract for Difference (CfD) by the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in the latest auction round in September 2017.