TNB forays into international offshore wind market

PETALING JAYA: Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s (TNB) acquisition of a 49% stake in offshore wind farm company, Blyth Offshore Demonstrator Ltd (BODL), marks its maiden entry into the international offshore wind market and also enhances its renewable energy (RE) portfolio.

The utility giant is targeting to grow its RE capacity to 8,300MW by 2025.

As of December 2021, TNB had a total RE capacity of 3,487.2MW.

This included 2,771MW in Malaysia and 716MW across the United Kingdom, Turkey and India.

In a statement yesterday, TNB said its wholly-owned subsidiary, Vantage RE Ltd, had acquired a 49% stake from EDF Renewables (EDFR), a subsidiary of the French utility company Électricité de France (EDF).

“Sealed on Oct 18, 2021, the acquisition marks TNB’S maiden entry into the international offshore wind market as BODL currently owns offshore wind assets off the coast of Blyth, Northumberland, England,” it said.

TNB said assets include five turbines with a total installed capacity of 41.5MW (Blyth 1) and further development rights for a floating offshore wind project of up to 58.4MW (Blyth 2) located off the Northumberland coast.

The five 8.3MW turbines of Blyth 1 are installed with gravity-based foundations, which use a concrete load to keep the turbines securely in place without penetrating the seabed.

The wind farm has been in operation since 2017 under the Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROC) subsidy regime that is expected to provide stable revenues.

Blyth 2 is an innovative floating offshore wind project currently in the early stage of development.

“The acquisition is one of the planned strategic acquisitions for TNB to accelerate its

journey in delivering on its environmental, social and governance (ESG) vision,” TNB said.

The company added that it had announced its Sustainability Pathway, a blueprint with an aspiration to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The pathway is underpinned by a commitment to reduce 35% of TNB’S emission intensity as well as 50% of its coal-generation capacity by 2035.

Vantage RE was launched on July 1, 2021 to own, operate and manage TNB’S portfolio of RE assets in the UK and Europe.

To date, it has achieved a 530MW RE portfolio including offshore wind, onshore wind and solar farms in the UK.

TNB is a leading Malaysian utility company in Asia with an international presence in the UK, Kuwait, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and India.

Meanwhile, EDF Renewables UK and Ireland is part of one of the world’s largest electricity companies.

Its operating portfolio of 37 RE sites include onshore and offshore wind totalling 1GW.

It also has an expanding portfolio with almost 5GW of projects in the planning and development stage, including wind, battery and solar PV.