HD Hyundai Heavy Wins Contract for Taean Offshore Wind Substation

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has signed a contract to build an offshore substation for a planned 500-megawatt wind farm off Taean County, expanding the shipbuilder’s role in South Korea’s offshore wind supply chain.

The agreement with Taean Wind Power covers engineering, procurement, fabrication, installation and commissioning of the substation. Won Gwang-sik, who heads HD Hyundai Heavy Industries’ offshore energy business, and Taean Wind Power project chief executive Clément Helbig de Balzac attended the signing ceremony.

The facility will collect electricity generated by turbines in waters near Gaeuido-ri in Taean, South Chungcheong Province. It will raise the voltage of that power before transmitting it to the onshore grid, making the substation a central piece of the wind farm’s electrical infrastructure.

The main contract follows earlier stages of work between the parties. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries signed a front-end engineering design contract for the project in March and was selected as the preferred supplier in July. The latest agreement moves the project from preliminary engineering and supplier selection into full execution.

The Taean offshore wind development is designed to have a capacity of about 500 megawatts by 2030. The plan calls for 36 turbines, each rated at 14 megawatts, to be installed in waters near Taean County. Taean Wind Power is jointly owned by Singapore-based renewable energy company Vena Energy, Danish green infrastructure investor Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Korea Western Power. Vena Energy and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners each hold 37.5 percent, while Korea Western Power owns 25 percent.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries is bringing technology developed in-house to the project. Its 500-megawatt offshore substation model received basic design verification from Norwegian classification society DNV last year, followed by detailed design verification in August. The company said it was the first offshore substation design in Korea to secure both approvals under international rules and standards.

The contract gives HD Hyundai Heavy Industries a commercial project through which to apply its offshore plant engineering and construction capabilities to renewable energy. The company also plans to explore further cooperation on Korean offshore wind developments involving Vena Energy, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Korea Western Power.

An HD Hyundai Heavy Industries official said the company intends to carry out the Taean substation project using its accumulated offshore plant expertise, while pursuing additional renewable-energy business opportunities and strengthening its competitiveness in the market.