SgurrEnergy has secured a 12-year construction and operational monitoring contract for 396MW Merkur offshore wind farm in the German North Sea, for which the new financing structure was put in place this month.
The scope of the contract includes monitoring of construction works and the financial and operational performance of the project to provide regular reporting to the project lenders throughout construction and for the first 10 years of operation.
Wood Group business, SgurrEnergy was appointed as lenders’ technical advisor for a consortium of international lenders in 2015 to support the project to financial close. This construction and operations monitoring appointment will see SgurrEnergy support the GBP 1.6 billion project, developed by Merkur Offshore GmbH, until 2028.
SgurrEnergy’s role in this project to date included independent technical due diligence, advising lenders on permitting and environmental considerations, civil and electrical design, project delivery and energy yield predictions.
Consultants also conducted reviews of construction and operation contracts, construction methods, management procedures and the planned operations and maintenance concept. SgurrEnergy reviewed technical inputs into the financial model and, through the findings of the due diligence review, advised the project lenders on project risk profile and appropriate contingency sizing.
Offshore construction works will begin early in 2017 and will consist of 66 GE Haliade 6MW wind turbines, which is the first commercial deployment of this technology in Europe, and the largest in the world.
“From the first large scale deployment of the GE Haliade 6MW wind turbine to the innovative contracting strategy, this is a milestone project for the European offshore wind industry and we are delighted to continue our support for a further 12 years of construction and operational monitoring,” SgurrEnergy’s project manager, Kevin Murphy , said.
“We’ve worked closely with the project and lenders over the past year to ensure that the lenders’ requirements are reflected and the project is sufficiently de-risked to reach financial close. We are proud to be involved in this notable offshore development and look forward to providing our expertise throughout Merkur’s construction and operation.”
SgurrEnergy has been involved in the financing of a number of German offshore wind farms in recent years, including , Gode Wind II, Nordergrunde, Butendiek, Veja Mate, Nordsee One and Borkum West II.