Simec Atlantis Energy’s Meygen tidal array has exported more than 12 gigawatt hours of electricity to the Scottish grid, beating the previous world record held by SeaGen.
The 6MW MeyGen Phase 1A tidal array, in the Pentland Firth in northern Scotland, entered the 25-year operations stage in April last year.
MeyGen Phase 1A comprises three 1.5MW Andritz turbines and a single 1.5MW Atlantis AR1500 unit installed on gravity turbine support structures.
The pilot project was developed to demonstrate the development of tidal array projects is both commercially viable and technically feasible.
Through the second half of 2018 Simec Atlantis Energy carried out operations and maintenance work on the machines at its Nigg Energy Park base in Easter Ross, redeploying two Andritz machines in October and the remaining Andritz and the AR1500 unit in December.
By the end of this year the developer will connect additional bigger capacity tidal turbines using a subsea connection hub. The system will allow multiple machines to export via a single cable, to slash grid connection costs and reduce tidal power’s levelised cost of energy.
The proposed works, known as Project Stroma, will benefit from a €16.8m revenue support package under the European Commission’s NER300 programme.
Subsea engineering specialist ETA is supplying the tidal turbine connection system, which aims to make extensive use of the Scottish supply chain.