Renewables expertise

Core completed electrical works for Whitelee Wind Farm at Lochgoin, Eaglesham in Lanarkshire, which is managed by SP Renewables and Major Projects (CRE Energy). The Project involved the installation of over five kilometres of high voltage power cable and two high voltage substations at Europe’s largest wind farm in a contract worth over £260,000.

Core installed one HV customer substation with associated jointing works which will be used to power the visitor centre and control room. The company also installed and commissioned a 3-Panel high voltage board for SP Renewables.

The project, which took almost three months (CONFIRM) to complete, saw over five kilometres of overhead line installed at the wind farm. The first three kilometres of Overhead Line was located over open moorland and required special machinery to allow the overhead line contractors to overcome the boggy and peaty ground conditions.

A further 500m of High Voltage cable was laid underground, where rock formation made the task more difficult and a JCB digger fitted with a pecker had to be brought in to carry out the work safely and efficiently.

Sandy Syme, Senior Project Engineer of Core said: “This has been quite a tricky installation because of the terrain where the wind farm was based. Careful planning and the use of specialist equipment meant we were able to complete the works on time.

“This has been a key contract for Core and it has been a great experience to work on the largest wind farm to be built in the UK and we look forward to working with CRE Energy on future wind farm projects.”

The project is due to be powered up in February 2008.

The Whitelee project will cover an area of approximately 5500 hectares with 140 wind turbines.

Whitelee Wind Farm is scheduled to complete in mid-2009 making a major contribution to Britain’s commitment to renewable energy, eventually providing enough electricity to power 200,000 homes – approximately enough energy to power the housing needs of Glasgow.

SP Renewables and Major Projects is responsible for delivering ScottishPower’s strategy of having 10% (1,000MW) of generated electricity come from renewable sources by 2010. This will be achieved primarily through the building and acquisition of windfarms, but also by investing in biomass and other emerging technologies such as wave power.