Denmark unveils changes to timeline for 600-MW offshore wind farm

Sep 3, 2014 - Prequalification as part of the bidding procedure for the development of the 600-MW Kriegers Flak wind farm in the Baltic Sea will begin in October 2015 while preliminary tenders are due in April, 5 2016.

The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) announced the revised timeline for the offshore wind project yesterday, saying that the changes were made because of certain amendments to the grid connection concept implemented by Danish national transmission system operator Energinet.dk, which in turn were driven by a delay in the environmental impact assessment (EIA). As a result, the date of guaranteed grid connection is pushed back by a year to January 1, 2019.

Energinet.dk had to come up with new plans as the original ones for a combined grid system connecting Kriegers Flak to both Germany and Denmark were abandoned due to unexpected price hikes regarding the main high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) components on the platforms, the DEA’s Katrine Nissen explained in a statement.

The deadline for the bidding tenders is now set for mid-September 2016, while concession contracts are expected to be signed the following month.

As previously revealed, Denmark has delayed till end-2021 the start-up of the 600-MW offshore wind farm.

Also yesterday, the DEA confirmed that the Danish government and the opposition Liberal Party have made certain amendments concerning the Danish offshore tenders to the cross-party political energy agreement from 2012. Apart from the revised timeline for Kriegers Flak, these also include the reduction of the capacity of planned coastal wind projects to 400 MW from 500 MW, with 50 MW for test turbines, and a cap of DKK 0.70 (USD 0.12/EUR 0.09) per kWh to the power purchase price for nearshore wind farms.

(DKK 1.0 = USD 0.176/EUR 0.134)

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