Vattenfall’s Wind Business Area recorded an uptick in wind generation in the first quarter of 2017 on the back of more than 500MW of added capacity, including the recently commissioned 288MW Sandbank offshore wind farm.
The Swedish energy company said that the production of wind energy increased despite less wind in the first quarter of 2017.
Vattenfall’s wind farms generated 2.2 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in the first quarter of 2017, a 46.7% increase compared to 1.5 TWh of wind power generated in the first quarter of 2016.
The increase in power generation translated into a 27.9 jump in net sales for the period which stood at SEK 2.543 billion (EUR 264.3 million) at the end of Q1 2017, as well as a 21.7% rise in underlying operating profit which climbed to SEK 858 million.
The underlying operating profit increased as a result of the newly added capacity, Vattenfall said.
The increase can be explained by newly commissioned assets in combination with a faster construction process in some projects.
In mid- January the installation vessel MPI Adventure installed the last of a total of 72 wind turbines on Sandbank. The construction phase for the wind turbines was completed three months ahead of the originally planned time schedule allowing for the turbines to be commissioned and successively connected to the grid earlier than planned.
Sandbank also received the Taking Over Certificate (TOC) from Siemens 34 days earlier than planned, Vattenfall said.
The availability of producing assets within the Swedish energy company’s renewables division was 97.1% during the quarter.