British engineering consultancy WS Atkins has secured a contract from Dong Energy to design a substation for the 580MW Race Bank offshore wind farm in the country.
Construction on the wind farm, which will be located off the east coast of England in the Greater Wash area, is slated to begin in 2017.
Atkins already has contracts to design the substations for Dong Energy’s Walney and Burbo extension projects.
Dong Energy UK country manager for wind power Benj Sykes said that Dong Energy has a tough target to cut the cost of offshore wind by 35 – 40 per cent by 2020.
Atkins Power and Renewables managing director Dave Parkin said, "With over 30 years looking after oil and gas offshore structures, we can directly apply lessons learned in terms of construction and operation in deeper waters, foundation and jacket technology, the use of heavy-lift vessels and asset maintenance offshore.
"Our UK based team will be working together with DONG Energy to apply the lessons on these large, complex projects enabling us to set new benchmarks in stripping out any fat for an industry that needs to become more and more competitive with other energy sources."