USA: Atlantic Wind Connection Seeking Suppliers

Atlantic Wind Connection said today it is unveiling a new contracting portal for the New Jersey Energy Link, the multi-year offshore transmission project planned off the New Jersey Coast, to help local contracting and service businesses to connect with one of New Jersey’s most exciting opportunities for new jobs.

The New Jersey Energy Link is a state-of-the-art electric transmission system buried underground and under the seabed connecting southern and northern New Jersey to fix long-standing problems that are causing higher cost electricity. Building this storm-hardened facility will require all facets of engineering and construction disciplines.

The process of building the submarine and underground cable system and related electric substations is expected to employ approximately 1,100 New Jersey workers for three to four years, plus a permanent operations and maintenance staff of about 75 workers. Because it runs at sea through New Jersey’s wind energy area, the New Jersey Energy Link also can be used to efficiently connect and deliver power from future offshore wind farms.

The New Jersey Energy Link could become the foundation for many thousands of future jobs in a new New Jersey offshore wind industry. According to a study by IHS Global Insight, a large, multi-year build out of offshore wind farms could create between 10 and 20 thousand jobs in the state, pump $9 billion into the State economy and bolster state and local tax revenues by $2.2 billion.

Building an offshore electrical substation platform to connect the wind turbines to the transmission system would employ an additional 500-600 New Jersey workers for two years for each platform according to estimates by Bechtel, the project’s Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor.

“We see great potential in New Jersey to use the skills, talent and resources of local firms and craft workers. Together with the NJ Alliance for Action, we sponsored in January an offshore wind supply chain forum in Holmdel, New Jersey and the interest from New Jersey companies was terrific – it was a standing-room-only event with over 250 attendees,” said Robert Mitchell, CEO of the Atlantic Wind Connection. “The new supply chain portal on our website –www.NewJerseyEnergyLink.com – is a way to capture that interest, and collect the information needed to employ New Jersey businesses and workers.”

To register for contracting opportunities on the New Jersey Energy Link, companies must have a D-U-N-S number. The majority of contracting opportunities will be arranged through Bechtel, the EPC contractor, with some limited opportunities to contract directly with the New Jersey Energy Link during the development and permitting phase.

Bechtel is serving as the EPC contractor for the first phase of the New Jersey Energy Link and will engineer, design, and install the transmission cable system and substations: two onshore converter stations and one offshore converter platform that will make up the project. The project uses advanced, controllable high-voltage direct current transmission technology that is ideally suited to transmitting power long distances on buried underground and undersea cables. Alstom, a leader in power transmission technology, will provide technical advice to the project in addition to the manufacture and delivery of the 320 kV HVDC multi-terminal system components.

The New Jersey Energy Link will be an offshore electrical transmission cable, buried under the ocean, linking energy resources and users in northern, central and southern New Jersey. The cable will span the length of New Jersey and when complete could carry 3,000 MW of electricity. The New Jersey Energy Link is expected to be built in three phases over a decade, with construction starting in 2016/2017 and the first phase to be in service in 2020/2021. The project is currently seeking the required consents and permits.

Press release, October 22, 2013; Image: atlanticwindconnection