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Alstom is recruiting another 50 engineers to bolster the engineering and design capabilities of its Stafford site after the company won its largest ever contract to construct an offshore grid connection for German grid operator Tennet.
The €1 billion contract will see Alstom design and construct the grid connection for the third part of the Dolwin windfarm, located in the German sector of the southern North Sea. Alstom is to supply the offshore converter system, including a platform connecting 200 turbines with a capacity to produce 900MW, the onshore converter station, and 80km of DC cable on the seabed and 80km onshore.
The project will add 65 people to a team of 120 at Alstom Grid, with new vacancies to come at the company’s site in Stafford.
Patrick Plas, senior vice-president at Alstom Grid’s Power Electronics and Automation division, said: “Our competency centre for high-voltage direct current (HVDC) in Stafford will have direct involvement in the project and will be designing and engineering both the onshore and offshore converter stations.
“We are hiring more than 100 engineers for the centre, and these people will work on this project and conduct the R&D for the future evolution of the technology.”
Alstom has already recruited more than 50 staff over the past year at the Stafford site to work on offshore grid connection projects. The company said it is looking for at least 50 more engineers “ranging from principal mechanical engineers to tendering managers and operation and maintenance manual specialists”.
Plas said: “The HVDC market is growing fast, from a value of €3 billion to €4 billion this year to reach €50 billion by 2020.
“It is mainly being impacted by the connection of offshore wind platforms, especially in Europe, which has 90% of the global wind market, with Germany and the UK in particular leading the market.”