Bard 1 set for August reconnection

GERMANY: Grid specialist Tennet has announced plans to reconnect the 400MW Bard 1 project by the end of August.

BorWin1 has suffered from several outages this year

The German transmissions operator said it was working on issues at the BorWin1 offshore substation with Bard 1 operator Ocean Breeze and network connection contractor ABB.

BorWin 1 has suffered from since the beginning of 2014 including problems with the seawater system and then a fire on the converter platform.

The three companies are working together to find the cause of the problems and to carry out preventative measures.

Bard 1 is owned by project company Ocean Breeze, which in turn is owned by HypoVereinsbank, part of Italian bank UniCredit.

Germany's Energy Industry Act that took effect at the end of 2012 means Bard Offshore 1 can expect . If electricity feed-in is impossible for more than ten consecutive days due to a cable outage, the  operator can claim 90% of the lost feed-in payments from the 11th day.

Bard, located 100 kilometres north west of Borkum Island, off the German north coas, was inaugurated in August 2013.