BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - innogy SE (IGY.DE), through its subsidiary Innogy Renewables UK Ltd., has signed an agreement under which the company will sell 41% of its Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farmto Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. (operating under the name J-Power; 25%), through its subsidiary JP Renewable Europe Company (JPREC), and to Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (16%), through its subsidiary KPIC Netherlands B.V. innogy will retain the majority equity stake (59%).
JPREC will procure a part of its investment funds by issuing preferred equity to Development Bank of Japan Inc.
Triton Knoll is an offshore wind project with a planned installed capacity of 860 megawatts (MW).Closing of the transaction is subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board of innogy SE and financial close with the debt funding of the Triton Knoll project, which is expected in the third quarter of 2018.
Once fully operational, Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm will be capable of supplying the equivalent of 800,000 UK households p.a. with renewable electricity. The planned investment volume amounts to about 2 billion pounds. The project is located 32 kilometres (km) off the coast of Lincolnshire in the east of England.
At the heart of the project, Triton Knoll expects to install 90 of MHI Vestas' V164-9.5 MW turbines, currently considered to be amongst the most powerful and efficient in the world. innogy will manage the construction as well as operation and maintenance works on behalf of the project partners.
Enabling works are now underway at the site of the project's onshore electrical system, which includes a 57 km underground cable route, landfall infrastructure and construction of a new onshore substation at Bicker Fen, in Lincolnshire. Full construction of the onshore electrical system is on schedule to begin shortly. Offshore construction is then expected to start in late 2019 and, according to current planning, commissioning of Triton Knoll is expected to start in 2021.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX