Britain's National Grid ESO (NG.L) has for the first time awarded a contract to an offshore wind farm to help keep voltage levels in the power network stable, it said on Monday.
The transmission assets of the Dogger Bank C offshore wind farm will provide 200 megavolt amperes of reactive power (MVAr), which is used to maintain network stability, for a 10-year period from 2024, National Grid said.
This will help stabilize voltage on the grid in the northeast of England after the expected closure of Hartlepool nuclear power station in March 2024, it said.
"Reactive power capability is vital for managing voltage and being able to operate a zero-carbon system of the future," Julian Leslie, head of networks at National Grid ESO, said in a statement.
"We're excited to see that an offshore wind farm’s transmission asset will deliver reactive power to support the wider network for the first time in Britain." The Dogger Bank C wind farm off the northeast coast of England has an installed capacity of 1.2 gigawatts.
Its stakeholders are Britain's SSE Renewables, Norway's Equinor and Italy's ENI. In the West Yorkshire area, National Grid selected National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) to help manage voltage for 10 years from 2024, by providing 500 MVAr, it added.
($1 = 0.7400 pounds) Reporting by Nora Buli; editing by Jason Neely