Substation will link the Gateway to the grid

18/01/2012

E.ON’s Humber Gateway offshore wind farm will see the construction of 73 turbines generating enough energy to power up to 170,000 homes.

Central to the project is the construction of a substation at Staithes Road, Hull to connect the underground cable network to the National Grid.

Dr Tony Cocker, Chief Executive of E.ON UK, said: “This isn’t just an important announcement for E.ON, but is also a significant announcement for the UK.”

E.ON is committed to growing its offshore wind fleet across Europe and this announcement forms part of a €2-billion investment programme in offshore wind, encompassing Humber Gateway (219 MW) off the coast of the UK, Amrumbank (288 MW) off the coast of Germany and Kårehamn (48MW) off the coast of Sweden.

The Humber Gateway site comprises over eight acres of land close to Hedon Road on the outskirts of Hull.  The land had been in private ownership for a number of years and was made available for sale because of the scale of the E.ON project.

“There has been a lot of excitement about investment in offshore wind farms, and we’ve been working with the owners of this site for some time after it was identified as an ideal location for the substation,” said Dave Garness, Managing Director of Garness Jones.

“This has been a very complex process, as the operators had to consult at all levels about the route for the underground cable.  We’ve learned a lot about wind farms throughout the project – how they work, how they connect to power supplies and what they will actually provide to the area in terms of power provision.”