E.on wins legal case on Robin Rigg against MT Hojgaard

German energy group E.on SE (ETR:EOAN) has won the long-disputed case concerning the failure of foundation structures at the 180-MW Robin Rigg offshore wind farm in UK waters.

The Supreme Court in the UK yesterday allowed an appeal by E.on from December 2015, which followed an earlier ruling in favour of MT Hojgaard.

The latest ruling is against Danish construction group MT Hojgaard, which E.on claims should be held liable for technical issues at the offshore wind park and has to bear the cost of remedial works in the sum of EUR 26.25 million (USD 31.2m).

E.on in late 2006 contracted the Danish company to design, fabricate and install the foundations for the wind turbines at Robin Rigg. The deal included a provision that “the design of the foundations shall ensure a lifetime of 20 years in every aspect without planned replacement”.

MT Hojgaard completed works under the contract in February 2009, but in April 2010 the grouted connections at the plant started to fail causing the transition pieces to slip down the monopiles.

At first, the parties deferred the legal dispute by agreeing on a scheme of remedial works. Later they started the legal proceedings in order to determine who should bear the cost of those works. E.on argued that the Danish firm had been negligent and also had been responsible for numerous breaches of contract that led to the technical issues, while MT Hojgaard contended that it had complied with all its contractual obligations.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.189)

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