The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Wind farm’s Montrose operations base will boost economy for at least 25 years
Courier Business Briefing will feature Seagreen’s head of procurement
The man tasked with organising the supply chain for SSE Renewables’ major wind farm projects will appear at next week’s Courier Business Briefing.
John Casserly is the Perth-based energy giant’s head of procurement and commercial for major projects.
His role involves negotiating contracts for the Seagreen offshore wind farm off the coast of Angus and Dogger Bank, the UK’s largest offshore wind development, based in Yorkshire, as well as the Viking onshore project in Shetland.
Mr Casserly said the firm expected to announce its final tier 1 contractor for the Seagreen project in the coming weeks. He said: “We are trying to get all the contracts for the supply chain for the tier 1 contractors finalised so we can go to financial close.
“We are expecting to make that announcement imminently but we are not quite there yet.
“So far we have announced Mitsubishi Vestas for the turbines, Petrofac for the onshore and offshore substation works and Nexans for the cables.
“The final tier 1 announcement will be for the marine installation package for the jackets the turbines will sit on.”
SSE Renewables has announced Montrose Port will contain the project’s operations and maintenance base.
Mr Casserly said the base will provide a significant amount of investment and jobs into the Angus economy for at least 25 years.
He said: “The location in Montrose is good but the differentiator was the approach Montrose Port took – their team were excellent at trying to accommodate us.
“It will give them a consistent revenue stream and give us the confidence of having a good location and base that we could expand upon if needed.
“We spend almost the same amount of money operating and maintaining the turbines over their life as we do in building them in the first place.
“Seagreen will be in the water for at least 25 years – it’s giving people really good long-term employment prospects.”
Mr Casserly anticipated that around 40 Mitsubishi Vestas will operate from the Montrose base, as well as between 25 and 30 SSE Renewables staff. The port is also taking on additional staff.
He said he was confident that Seagreen would have its first turbine operational next year, with all 114 turbines running by the end of 2022.
Wednesday’s breakfast event at Malmaison in Dundee, held in association with Fairways and supported by John Lawrie Group, will start at 7.30am and run until 9.30am.
It has the theme of Decom and Renewables: The Opportunity and will feature Charles Hammond, the chief executive of Forth Ports, who will outline his vision for the Port of Dundee.
A panel discussion will include Mr Hammond, Mr Casserly and Julian Foley, decommissioning and projects director for John Lawrie Group.
Tickets, priced £25, can be purchased from thecourierbriefings.co.uk