UK Company Wins Major Two-in-One Deal for Onshore Cable Works

UK-based engineering and construction company J. Murphy & Sons (Murphy) has been awarded a multi-million-pound contract for onshore civil works on the export cables for both the 1.4 GW Sofia offshore wind farm and 1.2 GW Dogger Bank C.

Although the two large-scale offshore wind farms are being built by different developers, RWE (the owner of Sofia) and the Dogger Bank Wind Farm joint venture (SSE Renewables, Equinor, and Eni) are working jointly at the site of their adjacent converter stations and along the shared onshore cable route, according to Murphy.

Under the contract for the two projects, the UK civil works contractor will install the onshore cable ducts which connect the landfall site in Redcar to the HVDC Onshore Converter station. The main civils works will commence in March 2022 and run through until the end of 2024, Murphy said.

Sofia Offshore Wind Farm and Dogger Bank C, the third phase of Dogger Bank Wind Farm, are both located on Dogger Bank, more than 195 kilometres off the North East coast of England, with their export cables coming to shore in Teesside, between Redcar and Marske-by-the-Sea.

The two projects’ offshore HVDC export cables will connect to onshore cables that will run seven kilometres to a new converter station – one for each project – now under construction to the North East of Lazenby. Each project will then have a further two kilometres of HVAC cables that will transport power to the existing National Grid substation at Lackenby.

SSE Renewables and Equinor reached financial close on Dogger Bank C in December 2021, setting the third phase of the 3.6 GW Dogger Bank Wind Farm on track to start construction this year with onshore cable installation works and the construction of the onshore converter station.

RWE reached the financial investment decision on the Sofia offshore wind farm in March 2021, with the project breaking ground in the summer, together with Dogger Bank C.

Both offshore wind farms are scheduled to be put into operation in 2026.

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