ScottishPower Renewables has completed a subsea drilling and duct pull-in operation at its £4-billion ($5.35 billion) East Anglia TWO offshore wind development in the UK southern North Sea.

The program, managed by OCU Group, with support from Peter McCormack & Sons, involved installing two cable ducts, manufactured by Pipelife.

These will provide protection for the high-voltage export cables transporting electricity from the 960-MW windfarm to the shore.

Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) was employed to drill under the Suffolk coastline and seabed in East Anglia.

According to ScottishPower Renewables, the program included the world's longest continuous single sections of extruded polyethylene ducts, measuring just under 1,800 m long and 800 mm.

The combination of these dimensions, the company added, makes the ducts the largest electricity transmission landfall of their type in the UK.

Ross Ovens, ScottishPower Renewables’ managing director for Offshore, said the HDD was three times the length of the company’s other East Anglia landfall projects.

“HDD is a complex engineering solution that goes deep beneath the ground to create an underground bore without the need to dig up beaches, dunes, cliffs or coastal habitats, minimising any disruption to the environment and sensitive landscapes. It's completed using rigs working onshore and offshore simultaneously.”

Martin Myhre, project manager at Pipelife Norway, said: “Producing the pipe through continuous extrusion meant we could manufacture it as one uninterrupted length, without the need for welding. This eliminates welded joints, resulting in a more robust and reliable solution for this demanding application.”

Following manufacture in Stathelle, Norway, the pipe was towed to Thorpeness in eastern England.

The first of the East Anglia TWO export cables should be installed next summer, with the wind farm set to be in commercial operation in late 2028. The location is 33 km from Southwold on the Suffolk coast.

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Ørsted has contracted OEG to provide temporary power to the Hornsea 3 wind farm off the Yorkshire coast of eastern England, both during offshore converter station commissioning work and the turbine installation/ commissioning phase. 

Heerema Marine Contractors installed the two convertor stations last month.

OEG will supply power from a jackup vessel for converter station commissioning via five 200kVA and two 300kVA generators running in parallel. The total envisaged power supply is up to 1,400 kVA.

For the turbine installation and commissioning, the arrangement will be 150kVA generators paired with 3,000 liter mountable fuel tanks. OEG’s temporary power team previously supported the Hornsea 1 and Hornsea 2 construction phases.

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