Vattenfall to Start Kentish Flats Extension Next Week

Work gets underway next week on Vattenfall’s £165m extension to Kentish Flats Wind Farm as the developer prepares for the deployment of 15 turbines in the summer of 2015.

The preparatory work is scheduled to start offshore on 22 October 2014 as Vattenfall prepares the sea bed for 30 kilometres of cable between turbines at Kentish Flats Extension and from the wind farm to the shore. Work to lay electricity cables from the shore at Hampton Pier to Red House Farm Substation in Thornden Wood Road, Herne Bay is scheduled to start in late November this year.

Matthew Green, Vattenfall’s Project Director for the construction of Kentish Flats Extension, said: “Kentish Flats Extension was consented in spring 2013 and since then we have been planning, organising and contracting. We’re now ready to go and by this time next year we plan to be generating low carbon power from all 15 wind turbines. Building an offshore wind farm is no easy task; that is why it is one of the most exciting engineering challenges around today.”

From 22 October this year Vattenfall’s main offshore electrical contractors, Bohlen & Doyen, will start to use an underwater jetting tool to create the trenches in the sea bed. Then in May 2015, from the same machinery, the cables will be laid at their required depth with more ease when cabling installation activities commence. The work this October is being carried out well in advance of cable laying to ensure that any obstructions along the sea bed are dealt with to avoid delay to the project at a later stage.

During this and further offshore construction Vattenfall will be issuing Notices to Mariners and working closely with Canterbury City Council’s Foreshore Services Department to ensure that water users are kept regularly informed as the work progresses.

In spring 2015 Vattenfall will start foundations work approximately seven kilometres offshore and these will be followed by the delivery and erection of the 139.6 metre high wind turbines with all turbines scheduled to be deployed by July 2015. Kentish Flat sExtension is scheduled to generate first power in late summer. Kentish Flats Extension, with an installed capacity of 49.5MW will be capable of generating enough power in a year to meet the equivalent annual electricity demand of 35,000 households.

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