Meeting Date / 7 March 2016
Place / Westminster, London
Next meeting / 7 July 2016
Attendees
Andrea Leadsom MP (Co-Chair) / Minister of State, DECCBenj Sykes (Co-Chair) / Head of Asset Management, DONG Energy
Dan Finch / EU Country Manager, EDP Renovaveis
David Currie / Chief Executive Officer, JDR Cables
Thomas Karst / Chief Sales Officer, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind
Paul Cowling / Director of Offshore Wind, RWE Innogy GmbH
Jonathan Cole / Managing Director - Offshore, ScottishPower / OWPB industry Co-Chair
Clark MacFarlane / Managing Director Wind Power & Renewables UK, Siemens Energy
Jon Vatnaland / Managing Director, Statkraft UK Ltd
Halfdan Brustad / Vice President for Wind Projects, Statoil
Huub den Rooijen / Head of Offshore Wind, The Crown Estate
Piers Guy / UK Country Manager and Director, Offshore Development, Vattenfall
Declan Burke / Head of CFD Design & Governance, DECC & HMG Co-Chair, OWPB
Joshua Willison / Deputy Head of Offshore Wind, Clean Electricity Directorate, DECC
Carolyn Campbell / Business of Energy & the Environment, BIS
David Stevenson / Head of Offshore Wind Policy, Scottish Government
Giles Sibun (substitute) / Commercial Strategy Manager, EON
Colin Maciver (substitute) / Commercial Manager, Repsol Nuevas Energias UK
Brian McFarlane (substitute) / Director of Offshore Renewables, SSE
Observers
James Beal / Chief Operations Officer, Offshore Wind Trade, UKTI
Adam Bruce / Global Head of Corporate Affairs, Mainstream Renewable Power
Yuen Cheung / Head of Offshore Wind, Clean Electricity Directorate, DECC
Helen Dhoot / Assistant Director, Clean Electricity Directorate, DECC
Alan Morgan / Supply Chain Team, Clean Electricity Directorate, DECC
Simon Sharpe / Senior Private Secretary to Andrea Leadsom MP, Minister of State
Holly Marshall / Senior Commercial Manager, DONG Energy
Apologies
Sven Utermöhlen / Offshore Wind Director, E.ON Climate & Renewables
Ronnie Bonnar / Managing Director, Repsol Nuevas Energias UK
Paul Cooley / Director of Renewables, SSE
Agenda
- Welcome
1.1 Opening remarks and introductions
1.1.1 The Minister opened the seventh Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) meeting.
1.1.2 Benjamin Sykes thanked those members who have now stepped down from the group for their significant contributions to OWIC and welcomed the new members
1.2 Apologies
1.2.1 Apologies were received from Sven Utermöhlen (E.ON), Ronnie Bonnar (Repsol) and Paul Cooley (SSE).
1.3 Formal adoption of the agenda
1.3.1 Benjamin Sykes gave an introduction to OWIC.
1.4 Conflicts of interest
1.4.1 Benjamin Sykes noted that all members of OWIC received the OWIC OWPB Competition Law Compliance Policy dated 27 March 2015.
- OWIC Progress
2.1 Progress to date
2.1.1 Benjamin Sykes presented an update to OWIC covering the progress made since the last OWIC meeting in March 2015.
2.1.2 Benjamin Sykes noted that Jonathan Cole is now the industry Co-Chair for the Offshore Wind Programme Board (OWPB). OWIC members were asked to support Jonathan in his new role.
2.1.3 Benjamin Sykes noted the industry’s new focus on the energy mix and asked OWIC to consider how the industry can demonstrate more clearly the benefits that offshore wind brings to the energy mix and to the system in this regard.
- OWIC Priorities
3.1 UK Content and Cost Reduction
3.1.1 The Minister noted two key areas for current and future developers to consider:
- The importance of using UK content and the need for evidence on barriers
- The ambition of achieving a higher percentage local content (>50%)
She was also interested in lowering the carbon footprint of the supply chain
3.1.2 A number of OWIC members noted that, as discussed at a previous OWIC meeting, the current 12 months from CfD award to Milestone Delivery Date (MDD) makes it very challenging to introduce new players into the supply chain for a project, and also to drive down costs, and a longer MDD of up to 24 months would facilitate improvement in both these aspects without putting project delivery at risk. DECC acknowledged member concerns so will examine the issue. DECC requested detailed evidence on MDD extension, and budget-blocking disincentives more generally.
3.2 East Coast Construction & Staging Review
3.2.1 The Minister noted that Benjamin Sykes will be leading the East Coast Construction & Staging Review which is expected to be finalised in late June.
3.2.2 OWIC noted that those OWIC members participating in the review (the ‘review group’) would be asked to actively engage in the review and contribute to any costs of the review.
3.2.3 It was noted that the review will focus on construction and staging and intentionally will not focus on the supply chain.
3.3 National College for Wind Energy
3.3.1 The Minister noted her recent meeting with Humber region MPs to discuss the potential for a National College for Wind Energy and encouraged OWIC members to consider whether this is something they could sponsor.
3.3.2 A number of OWIC members noted that the impact of any such College on existing facilities in the area would need to be carefully considered, and noted that a new National College for Wind Energy should not present competition to existing initiatives. It was agreed that OWPB would consider this and its impact alongside other initiatives.
- Offshore Wind Programme Board and Cost Reduction Monitoring Framework (CRMF)
4.1 Jonathan Cole presented an update on Cost Reduction.
4.2 Jonathan noted that the CRMF 2015 qualitative report is ready for publication. This is the second annual publication of a CRMF report.
4.3 Jonathan Cole explained that CRMF 2016 will be both qualitative and quantitative and gave his recommendation on behalf of OWPB for OWIC to approve:
4.3.1 A press release[1] relating to the CRMF 2015 report; and
4.3.2 OWIC’s contribution to the CRMF 2016 cost (£130k of £160k total).
4.4 OWIC approved the recommendations.
4.5 Jonathan Cole noted that each member will need to raise a PO for their part of OWIC’s contribution to the CRMF 2016, and all industry members are expected to contribute to the work
4.6 OWIC noted that the OWPB priorities are to be reviewed and aligned with OWIC’s priorities.
- AOB and closing remarks
5.1 Benjamin Sykes noted that membership of the East Coast Construction & Staging review group was provided by DECC.
5.2 Benjamin Sykes noted that the Terms of Reference for the East Coast Construction & Staging Review would be circulated after the meeting.
5.3 OWIC noted that the East Coast Construction & Staging review group kick off meeting will be scheduled for 16 or 17 March.
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[1] Post-meeting note: the press release was issued on 14 March 2016 and can be found here.