An RWE-led consortium has requested a 12-month exemption from handing over the transmission assets at the 857MW Triton Knoll offshore wind farm to new owners following a fault at one of its subsea export cables.
RWE, J-Power and Kansai Electric Power must transfer the assets to a joint venture of Equitix and Japan’s TEPCO Power Grid by 23 October this year under the deadline set by its Generator Commissioning Clause (GCC).
However, in March the Triton Knoll owners appealed to BEIS asking for a 12-month exemption from this requirement following the cable fault, latest financial accounts for the wind farm reveal.
The cable fault occurred on 19 November 2021, the documents note.
The cable has since been repaired and the wind farm has resumed full operations, but RWE and its partners are still awaiting the results of a third-party report on the root cause of the fault.
The report will in turn determine the insurance cover required by the purchasers of the OFTO, according to the accounts.
The RWE consortium said handover of the OFTO assets “will likely take place during 2023”. However, no extension to the GCC deadline had been granted at the time the financial statements were approved.
Equitix and TEPCO Power Grid were selected by UK regulator Ofgem to own and operate the Triton Knoll transmission infrastructure for 23 years in November 2021.
Under UK rules, offshore wind generation owners must divest their transmission assets once the projects begin operating.
The RWE consortium expects proceeds of £572.7m from the sale, representing a gain of £28.4m, according to the results for the year-ended 31 December 2021.
Construction of Triton Knoll was formally completed in April this year while all turbines had been commissioned by 28 February.
The wind farm owners have delayed triggering a 15-year Contract for Difference for half of its 857MW capacity until 1 April 2023, which a spokesperson told renews in May “enables a project to allow for delays and losses incurred during the construction process”.