London Array’s first full winter of generation saw the offshore wind farm making a valuable contribution to Kent and the UK’s renewable electricity needs.
In the six months from October 2013 to the end of March 2014, the wind farm’s 175 turbines produced 1.5 TWh of clean power – equivalent to the annual consumption of around 325,000 British households.
The good performance was helped by December and January’s unusually windy weather which, combined with high availability, meant the turbines were able to capitalise on the near-perfect conditions to achieve some very high load factors. On 6 January alone, some 15 GWh was produced.
London Array’s General Manager Mike O’Hare said: “This excellent performance is a testament to the quality of installed components, the well managed construction project, the smooth handover to operations, the support we’ve had from local stakeholders and our service providers who work to keep the turbines turning.
“As well as excellent production figures, I am delighted the safety culture we developed during construction has been maintained and that there were no major injuries to our people working on site.
“Our priority now is to build upon this promising start to safely and efficiently complete our routine maintenance and balance of construction work over summer, while further improving reliability and repair times.”
Press Release, April 09, 2014; Image: london array