Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) yesterday signed a deal with Teco Electric and Machinery Co (東元電機) for its Chang Fang (彰芳) and Xidao (西島) projects off the coast of Changhua County, worth an estimated NT$2 billion (US$63.24 million).
Teco would be in charge of the engineering, procurement and construction of onshore substations for the two wind farms, which are to have a combined capacity of 600 megawatts (MW), of which 100MW would be provided by 2021 in the first phase of the projects and 500MW is scheduled for 2023.
Construction would start by the end of the year and is expected to be completed in 2021, Teco said.
Photo: Chen Ping-hung, Taipei Times
It said it would secure an estimated 98 percent of equipment and components locally, including switches, voltage transformers and regulators, and control panels.
“We already have the necessary techniques… We have previously installed substations for onshore wind turbines,” Teco acting president George Lien (連昭志) told reporters at the signing ceremony in CIP’s Taipei office.
Teco said it would operate the electrical substations through remote network monitoring.
Over the past few months, the Danish company has inked deals with CSBC-DEME Wind Engineering Co Ltd (台船環海), Dutch dredging and heavylift company Royal Boskalis Westminster NV and Hwa chi Construction Co (樺棋營造), a marine marine construction specialist, to show its willingness to comply with local content rules set by Taiwanese authorities.
“The Chang Fang and Xidao projects are three times more localized than other [wind farm] projects,” CIP Taiwan project office chief executive Jesper Krarup Holst said.
He hoped this would persuade local authorities to be more lenient regarding the use of certain equipment and components in the construction of wind farms, he added.
“Take [wind] turbines for example; the government requires the localization of 16 components,” he said.
Taiwan’s manufacturing industry lacks the needed technology, and another significant drawback is that the production of a few key components, such as power converters, is protected by patents, he said.
CIP also faces setbacks in steel structures for submarine foundations, which the firm has entrusted to Century Iron & Steel Industrial Co (世紀鋼構), as no local companies in downstream industries have delivered to an offshore wind farm before, Holst said, implying that the lack of experience would lead to deadlines being delayed and thus lower bankability.
Holst said CIP would push forward with localization content rules as it plans to unveil new deals in the next few months and the company’s dialogue with government officials is continuing.
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