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First power from Kentish Flats Ext

By: Sue Crothers 31/08/2015 Jason Ormiston

General Windfarms

Summer build of Vattenfall’s Kentish Flats Extension has finishing line in sight

Vattenfall, the Swedish state-owned European energy company, has produced first power for the National Grid from its 15 turbine extension to the Kentish Flats Offshore Wind Farm.

First power was generated on Saturday 29 August at 14:05 from turbine number KE02.

When fully operational in early autumn, the more than £150mn, 49.5MW extension will add to Vattenfall’s 800MW European fleet of offshore wind capacity and support Vattenfall’s drive towards the production of more sustainable energy. The construction is expected to produce 173,000 megawatt hours a year.

Matthew Green, the Project Manager for the construction of the Kentish Flats Extension (KFE), said: “We’ve made excellent progress so far. I can’t help feeling some pride in producing low carbon power for the first time and exporting to the grid from the MHI Vestas turbines. Our focus is now to continue working safely and get the remaining 14 turbines at Kentish Flats Extension generating green power as quickly as possible.”

Gunnar Groebler, Head of Vattenfall’s Wind business, said: “Kentish Flats Extension has an excellent safety record, is on schedule and on budget. Importantly, as we grow Vattenfall’s offshore wind capacity we deploy new ideas and learn more about engineering in this challenging environment. We can see these efforts are constantly reducing the cost of offshore wind power.

“And none of this could have happened without the dedication and expertise of our Vattenfall colleagues.”

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

'Engineering doesn’t get more challenging than this'

The BoDo installer carried out foreshore cabling work on Sunday 28th June and Monday 29th June. The BoDo Installer, a cable installation vessel executed the foreshore work which included an excavator and other heavy machinery on the beach.

Matthew Green, Vattenfall’s Project Director for the construction of the 49.5MW scheme said earlier that the project is "..a very challenging job with 155 tonne steel towers, 70 metres tall ... Engineering doesn’t get more challenging than this.”

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.

For more information about the Kentish Flats Extension please follow the links provided.

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First power from Kentish Flats Ext

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