French TSO Looking to Insure Grid Connection Works for Two Offshore Wind Farms

February 21, 2022, by Adrijana Buljan

French transmission system operator (TSO) Réseau de Transport d’Électricité (RTE) has invited tenders for insurance coverage of works to be performed on the grid connections for the Dieppe-Le Tréport and Yeu-Noirmoutier offshore wind farms.

The tender, launched on 16 February, is divided into three lots covering Construction All Risks insurance, Third Party Liability insurance, and Environmental Impairment Liability insurance, whereby each lot involves policy subscription for each of the two wind farms. Tenders may be submitted for all three lots.

The subscription of Construction All Risks / Erection All Risks policy also includes marine cargo and requires candidates to act as admitted P&C lead insurer, coinsurer or reinsurer on the EU market, and to be able to demonstrate their ability to underwrite offshore renewables risks.

Within the lot for the Third Party Liability (TPL) insurance policies for the grid connection works for the two wind farms, RTE sets similar requirements for applicants, with an addition of demonstrating their ability to underwrite TPL coverage for both onshore/offshore risks.

The same applies to the subscription of Environmental Impairment Liability (EIL) insurance policies, where candidates must be able to demonstrate their ability to underwrite EIL coverage.

The tender is open until 7 March and contracts will be signed for two years, with options for extensions, if needed, until the full completion of works.

The Dieppe-Le Tréport and Yeu-Noirmoutier offshore wind farms, each having an installed capacity of 496 MW, were selected in the country’s second tendering round back in 2014 and were approved for operation in 2018.

In 2020, Prysmian secured a contract with RTE to develop two submarine and land export cable systems for the Iles d’Yeu et de Noirmoutier offshore wind farm.