West of Duddon Sands windfarm begins full commercial operations

Scottish Power’s 389MW West of Duddon Sands offshore windfarm has begun full commercial operations, according to a statement from the company on Thursday.

The £1.6 billion joint-venture with Dong Energy first exported power to the UK grid in January of this year as part of the phased commissioning of the 108 turbines which make up the farm.

But a spokesman for the Iberdrola-owned company said on Thursday that final testing has now been completed, allowing full commercial operations at the project to begin.

The project represent’s Scottish Power’s first move into offshore wind generation and is a “key element” of its strategy, alongside planned investment in the 1,200MW East Anglia 1 and 350MW Wikinger offshore wind projects.

“We are very much committed as a group to developing a portfolio of offshore wind assets as part of our strategy,” said Iberdrola’s chairman Ignacio Galan in a statement.

Wikinger, Scottish Power’s second offshore wind project, will be built in the German Baltic Sea from early 2016 and involves a €1.35 billion (£1.06 billion) investment.

Meanwhile, a final investment decision on the East Anglia 1 project remains subject to its inclusion in the UK government’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) subsidy scheme, the company said, but added that it expects to “make a significant financial commitment” to the project in early 2016.

“We will be bidding in the UK Government’s contracts for difference auctions for our East Anglia One offshore project, for which we have planning consent, depending on the budget available for CFDs and also subject to a final investment decision. East Anglia could be a real catalyst in bringing down UK offshore wind costs,” Galan said.

Scottish Power already operates 1,530MW of the UK’s onshore wind capacity.