Skegness Magazine

Update: 23rd February, 2009 – Our report on the “cable work” to the Inner Dowsing/Lynn wind turbines carried out on Skegness beach recently has sparked reaction from concerned parties, therefore we would ask that you read the entire page. We have amended the title of this page.

14th February, 2009

We produced the following report after interviews with workers on site:

A cable from the Skegness wind turbine has snapped causing £1m per month loss of revenue from the renewable energy programme.

Emergency repairs are now being carried out to Cable 5 which runs from the wind farm onto the shore at Skegness just north of the North Shore Hotel.

Part of the beach has been cordoned off as a barge, the crew of which consists of Norwegien and Newcastle workers, has been pulled ashore by two tug boats.

A 3 ton crane mounted on the barge is lifting the new cables into holes in the sea bed, dug out by diggers.

A security officer, whose job is to keep people away from the work area, told us that the cables securing the barge are being tightened so that the barge will move further ashore on the next tide.

The repair work is expected to take a week to complete and is said to be “costing a fortune”.

The video below shows our interview with two of the workers, one of which is the foreman of the job.

By the way – if you’re feeling a little sorry for the crew who spend weeks on end in this barge – there’s apparently no reason to be… We’re told that although the barge looks rather tatty on the outside, below deck it’s fitted out like a palace with all the mod-cons including wide-screen TV!

19th February, 2009 – Our  report above was slammed as “absolute rubbish” by energy giant Centrica, according to a New Energy Focus website. Below is our follow-up report:

Energy Giant Centrica has slammed our report of a snapped cable serving the wind turbines off Skegness as “absolute rubbish”, according to the New Energy Focus website.

For reference we have reproduced an extract from the article on the New Energy Website:

Centrica quashes rumours of snapped cable at Inner Dowsing

Centrica quashes rumours of snapped cable at Inner Dowsing
Construction of the last turbine at Lynn and Inner Dowsing was completed in July last year

Energy giant Centrica has dismissed rumours of a snapped cable at one of its offshore wind farms as “absolute rubbish”.

The firm was responding to reports on local websites in Skegness that a barge anchor had gone through an export cable at the 194MW Lynn and Inner Dowsing offshore wind farm.

The websites said that the repairs, which were being carried out by barges off the coast of Skegness, and loss of revenue were costing developers £1 million a month.

But a spokesman for Centrica told New Energy Focus today that the barges are simply carrying out “routine cabling work” as part of the commissioning programme for Lynn and Inner Dowsing.

“There has been a rumour that an anchor has snapped an export cable, but this is absolute rubbish,” he said. “We are carrying out normal cabling work as we get the final turbines connected. Out of 54 turbines, 46 are now spinning, so we need to finish work on the rest.”

He added that cabling at the site is expected to be completed by March, at which point the wind farm will be fully operational.

19th February, 2009 – We were contacted by a spokesman from Centrica who denied that a cable had snapped, explaining that it was ordinary routine maintenance work which was being carried out.

It is essential to view our video of the interview with the onsite workers in order to understand the full story! You will note that nowhere in our original report did we say that an “anchor has snapped an export cable”, as quoted by Centrica on the New Energy Focus website.