Offshore construction will soon get underway on ScottishPower Renewables’ East Anglia THREE offshore wind farm, located around 43 miles from the Suffolk coast, though the onshore works have been progressing since 2022.
Once operational, the offshore wind farm will be the second biggest in the world and generate enough renewable energy to power the equivalent of more than 1.3 million homes.
With 95 wind turbines to construct, transport and install – plus further infrastructure both offshore and onshore – a project like this is a truly mammoth undertaking.
“The key stages are development, design, manufacture, commissioning and operation and maintenance,” said Niall Armstrong, electricity transmission execution manager for East Anglia THREE.
“For large projects, these stages can take well over 10 years, but the great news is we are getting close to the business end now for East Anglia THREE – when we can provide lots of clean, green energy to homes and businesses.”
During the development phase, the technical needs of the project are considered – carefully assessing and minimising the potential impact on people and the environment.
The design stage ensures a reliable and cost-effective connection between the wind farm and the existing national grid – while the delivery phase covers the procurement of suppliers, followed by the manufacture and installation of all wind farm components.
Once in service, the equipment is monitored 24/7 to ensure the renewable electricity keeps flowing.
East Anglia THREE comprises a number of physical components, both at sea and on land. These include the wind turbines and their foundations, which are anchored to the seabed.
A network of cables links the turbines and delivers the clean energy to an offshore converter station, where the current is transformed to carry the electricity to shore via subsea export cables.
The electricity travels more than 180km from the wind farm to the onshore converter station at Bramford, where it’s connected to the national grid, completing the journey from power to plug.
Niall is responsible for the safe delivery of the wind farm’s grid equipment. He said: “Without the grid connection, we can’t get the clean energy where it needs to go – to homes and businesses across the country – and it really is a mammoth engineering task.
“The biggest challenges are designing and building these huge pieces of kit in fabrication yards before moving them to the wind farm location where they need to operate reliably and remotely for decades to come.”
A huge number of people are involved in the project, both within SPR and its various contractors across the globe.
These range from design engineers, project managers and environmental managers through to health and safety advisors, planners and commissioning engineers – not to mention the people working on the onshore and offshore construction sites.
Nick Williams is the wind farm execution manager for East Anglia THREE, covering all offshore infrastructure, except the converter station. He manages and co-ordinates a team of project managers and engineers looking after the foundations, inter-array cables and wind turbines.
“There’s lots of different and distinctly separate pieces involved in ensuring the safe delivery, installation and commissioning of the wind farm on time, on budget and to the quality requirements of the project,” said Nick.
“My team must not only focus on their individual areas but achieve that in a complex and interdependent environment. This is our biggest-ever project and it’s a real team effort.”
Alberto Armella Avila, execution manager – project support, leads the technical functions that support the integration of the contracts led by Niall and Nick into the overall project.
He said: “The challenge for my team is to bring together all those individual component parts and ensure that the integration at project level is successful, safe and the best it can be.”
While this can present challenges, Alberto said construction is progressing well for East Anglia THREE.
“The onshore works are well progressed and contractors are busy manufacturing specialist equipment for the offshore wind farm installation. The project will generate its first green electricity in 2026.”
East Anglia THREE is expected to become fully operational by the end of 2026, helping power a cleaner and greener future for all.
For more information, please visit the website at spreastanglia.com
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