Supporting the Development Consent Order (DCO)
For Hornsea 3, we provided land referencing services in preparation for the DCO and supported the project throughout its Examination by the Planning Inspectorate. Working as part of a wider multi-disciplinary project team our work included title interrogation, creating the DCO plans and a Book of Reference and land plans. Special category land plans were also developed for the onshore work which is approximately 65km long. The DCO was formally accepted by the Planning Inspectorate in June 2018 and consent was granted by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in December 2020.
Connecting offshore infrastructure to the national grid
Onshore substations are required to connect each offshore wind project into the UK National Grid. WSP has worked with Ørsted since 2013 supporting onshore engineering design services covering everything from civil and structural engineering, through to geotechnical and environmental design. This included on their Walney Extension, Burbo Bank Extension, Race Bank and Hornsea One wind farms.
As part of an engineering design services framework agreement, WSP has been advising Ørsted since 2017 on developing onshore infrastructure for Hornsea 3 and Hornsea 4 wind farms. While civil designs for the onshore infrastructure are not complex, this provided us with opportunities to focus on delivering improved performance around sustainability, health and safety, collaboration and delivery. This included the adoption of BIM software for all appropriate elements of design, supporting superior levels of design and accurate first-time delivery.
Lessons learned on how to use the BIM software to most benefit the project/client were cascaded from project to project culminating in the production of a digital twin for the Hornsea One project.
