Photo Credit: GE Renewable Energy
K2 Management has announced that it has completed its pre-financial close due diligence work as lender’s technical advisor (LTA) for the third phase of the Dogger Bank Wind Farm – and been appointed to a four-year construction monitoring role.
The wind farm is being developed in three 1.2GW phases: Dogger Bank A, B and C. Dogger Bank A and B are each joint ventures between SSE Renewables (40%), Equinor (40%) and Eni (20%). In November 2021, SSE Renewables and Equinor, 50:50 joint venture partners in Dogger Bank C, announced Eni will take a 20% stake in the final phase, with SSE Renewables and Equinor maintaining 40% stakes each, in a deal that is expected to complete in Q1 2022 subject to regulatory approvals. This final phase of the Dogger Bank project, Dogger Bank C, reached financial close last month, with completion expected in 2026.
The appointments to LTA and construction monitoring roles marked a hattrick of Dogger Bank successes for K2M, which was selected to undertake those workstreams for all three phases of the project.
Working as a strategic partner to project stakeholders as LTA, K2M brought its blend of hands-on project development and construction experience, performing technical due diligence on all aspects of the project design, delivery and operations, providing a bank launch and financial close report for lenders.
K2M is already one year into a four-year construction monitoring scope on Dogger Bank A and B, ensuring that permitting, design, manufacturing and construction expenditure progresses in line with project lenders’ assumptions. It has now been chosen to carry out this work for Dogger Bank C, through until 2026.
Located between 130km and 230km off the north-east coast of England, Dogger Bank Wind Farm will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm with an installed generation capacity of 3.6GW, enough to power six million British homes.
Each phase will have an installed generation capacity of 1.2GW.
Onshore infrastructure works for all phases of the project – Dogger Bank A, B and C – are already underway, with completion scheduled for 2024, 2025 and 2026 respectively.
Dogger Bank Wind Farm Financial Director, Oliver Cass, said: “The Dogger Bank Wind Farm project demonstrates the real potential of offshore wind power to affect significant change in decarbonising the UK’s electricity supplies. K2 Management’s expertise in due diligence, understanding of banks’ lending requirements, and extensive track record in global offshore wind projects has been vital in ensuring that this potential is being realised.
“It has been invaluable in helping to successfully take Dogger Bank C through to financial close – just as it was through the project’s first two phases.”
Steve Hall, Principal Consultant and project manager of the Dogger Bank assignment at K2M, said: “We are incredibly proud to have now worked with the project team on all three phases of Dogger Bank. Projects on this scale and size bring about unique challenges, but I’m pleased that we have been able, as strategic partners, to bring our mix of best-in-class communication, real world experience, market insight and commercial and technical perspective. It has been a privilege to support project stakeholders through the financing process and aid lenders in making their analyses on the final stage of this hugely exciting project.”
Dogger Bank C, located off the coast of the UK, reached financial close in December 2021 – with offshore installation work set to commence in 2024
Photo credit: GE Renewable Energy
