Record-breaking cable ducts length of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile completed at giant North Sea wind farm
“The completion of this colossal horizontal directional drilling is a huge achievement - quite literally” – Ross Ovens, ScottishPower Renewables
ScottishPower has hailed a “global engineering first” after completing a record-breaking engineering operation on a major offshore wind farm.
The power giant’s renewables business has undertaken the work at the giant £4 billion East Anglia Two wind development. The project is being developed by ScottishPower Renewables, part of Iberdrola Group, in the southern North Sea.
The construction milestone saw the installation of the two cable ducts that will provide a protected pathway for the high-voltage export cables that will carry the green electricity from the 960-megawatt wind farm to shore.
At just under 1,800 metres long and 800mm in diameter, the giant ducts form the largest electricity transmission landfall of its kind in the UK, based on the combination of these two dimensions, ScottishPower noted. That length equals the distance of the historic Royal Mile in Edinburgh - from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace.
Ross Ovens, ScottishPower Renewables’ managing director for offshore, said: “The completion of this colossal horizontal directional drilling (HDD), which is three times the length of our other East Anglia projects, is a huge achievement - quite literally - and a major milestone as we progress construction of our third wind farm in the region.
“Our priority is always to deliver our clean energy projects, and all the benefits they bring, in a responsible and sensitive way that is mindful of the environment and the people around us.
“Landfall works are known to be one of the most technically challenging aspects of building an offshore wind farm, but thanks to precision planning and a great partnership with our principal contactor OCU Group and duct manufacturer Pipelife, this programme has well and truly hit the mark - breaking UK and world records in the process,” he added.
HDD is a complex engineering process that goes deep beneath the ground to create an underground bore without the need to dig up beaches, dunes, cliffs or coastal habitats, minimising any disruption to the environment and sensitive landscapes. It is completed using rigs working onshore and offshore simultaneously.
The works are part of the East Anglia Two civil engineering programme being carried out by principal contractor OCU Group, with support from its subsidiary Peter McCormack & Sons. The contract is supporting more than 80 jobs during construction.
Mike McNulty, HDD director at OCU Group, said: “Delivering a landfall HDD of this scale is an exceptional engineering achievement, demanding meticulous planning, technical expertise and close collaboration.
“We’re incredibly proud to be working alongside ScottishPower Renewables and our project partners to deliver this critical infrastructure for East Anglia Two. This milestone demonstrates what can be achieved through specialist engineering, strong partnerships and a shared commitment to delivering major energy infrastructure responsibly.”
The first of the wind farm’s export cables is expected to be installed in summer 2027, with the wind farm working towards commercial operation in late 2028.
East Anglia Two will be located in the southern North Sea. It will have an operational capacity of up to 960 megawatts - enough to power the equivalent of almost one million homes with “homegrown clean, green electricity”.
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