JDR Cables secures £33m windfarm contract
A TEES Valley cabling firm is to supply the world’s biggest offshore windfarm in a multi million pound deal.
Hartlepool firm JDR Cables will supply a massive 200km of cabling for the first phase of the London Array development, in a contract win worth £33m.
The announcement puts the subsea specialist in the vanguard of worldwide offshore suppliers and comes six months after it opened a deepwater quayside facility, creating 52 jobs.
Around 175 turbines will make up the first phase of the London Array, 20 miles off the Kent and Essex coasts, by the project consortium of DONG Energy, E.ON and Masdar.
It’s believed the massive project will power the London 2012 Olympic games.
“This is our biggest contract to date and the biggest offshore wind farm in the world,” said Steven Parfitt, JDR Cables general manager.
“It’s great news for the Tees Valley, and puts us in a leading position. There’s a real opportunity for this region to be a key player in renewable energy.
“This sector is set to boom.
“We have an excellent location, deepwater port facilities and companies.
“The Tees Valley also has the heavy engineering, shipbuilding and fabrication skills that can easily be applied to offshore wind. We have had no problem in finding our first 52 people. This contract keeps us on track to creating 200 jobs in the next five years.”
The umbilicals made by JDR Cables will be the essential link between individual turbines, generators and offshore substations. Work will start in May and is expected to last two years.
The company is creating a name for itself in renewable energy, while continuing its core work in oil and gas. Earlier this year, it won a multi million pound contract to supply 170km of cables for the Greater Gabbard offshore windfarm.
JDR’s London Array contract is the latest in a series of offshore wind project announcements for the Tees Valley. Earlier this month, Hartlepool-based engineering firm Heerema won a major contract to build two substation platforms for the Sheringham Shoal wind farm off the Norfolk coast, guaranteeing 1,000 jobs on Teesside.
Suppliers are awaiting decisions on which developers will win the next round of large windfarm projects - Round Three - expected by early 2010.
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