Engineering news
UK energy supplier SSE has shelved plans for two offshore wind farm developments and plans to reduce its stake in a third in a bid to cut costs.
The company said it would no longer develop the 690MW Islay wind farm off the west coast of Scotland or invest in the 340MW Galloper project off the coast of Suffolk, which is a 50:50 partnership with RWE Innogy. SSE blamed the decision on costs and a lower rate of return from Galloper than from other investment projects.
The utility also aims to reduce its 75% stake in the 750MW Beatrice project off the east coast of Scotland to no more than 50%. Spanish oil and gas firm Repsol holds the other 25% stake. SSE said it is likely to make a final investment decision on the Beatrice project in early 2016.
SSE said it would continue to support the SeaGreen development, a 50:50 partnership with Fluor to build two 525MW wind farms in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, and the Forewind project to build two wind farms of up to 1,200MW each off the east coast of England.
Jim Smith, SSE’s managing director of generation development, said: “Having looked across our offshore portfolio, and across our capital and investment programme as a whole, we believe that we should focus our near term development activity on Beatrice. Taking it forward to subsequent stages of development and construction will be challenging, but achievable, and that is what we are working towards.
“While increasing our commitment to the development of Galloper, SeaGreen and Forewind is not the right option for SSE at present, in the context of our wider investment plans, we will continue to work with partners and other stakeholders to achieve the most positive possible outcome for each project.”
The energy provider also announced plans to sell off non-core businesses and cut 500 jobs as it aims to make annual operational cost savings of £100 million by the end of 2015/16.