Erebus

By 24 April 2023, the nearshore geotechnical works for the Erebus project at West Angle Bay had been completed, with the jack‑up barge Aran 120 demobilised to Pembroke Port after finishing cone penetration, vibrocore, and/or borehole investigations required to support landfall and nearshore cable design.

On 19 April 2023, Blue Gem Wind commenced the offshore geotechnical survey phase for Erebus’s export cable and array area, with survey contractor Fugro deploying the vessels Voe Vanguard and later Fugro Scout to undertake cone penetration tests, vibrocores, and rotary boreholes to characterise sub‑seabed conditions for detailed design of cables and floating foundation anchoring.

Welsh Ministers granted a Section 36 consent with deemed planning permission to Blue Gem Wind to build and operate the Erebus floating offshore wind project, providing overall development consent for Wales’ first floating wind farm following the marine licence issued by Natural Resources Wales.

Notice to Mariners from Blue Gem Wind and Fugro states that an unexploded ordnance (UXO) geophysical survey in West Angle Bay for the Erebus floating offshore wind project will take place between 8 and 19 March 2023, estimated to take approximately two days, using the survey vessel Fugro Valkyrie.

Natural Resources Wales granted regulatory approval and issued the marine licence for the Project Erebus Floating Offshore Wind Farm under Part 4 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, with industry reports noting that Blue Gem Wind secured this marine licence in February 2023.

Natural Resources Wales opened a public consultation on 7 September 2022 on further environmental information for the Project Erebus Floating Offshore Wind Farm, relating to the marine licence and EIA under the Marine Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2007, with the consultation running until 19 October 2022.

In December 2021, Blue Gem Wind submitted its application for consent to build and operate the 96 MW Erebus floating offshore wind farm in the Welsh waters of the Celtic Sea, marking the formal start of the main project-wide planning and development consent process.

Blue Gem Wind Ltd, the developer of Project Erebus, has entered into a grid connection agreement with National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) for a connection at the National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) 132 kV Pembroke substation, which forms part of the wider Pembroke transmission development and will serve the Erebus export cable and onshore substation connection.

Blue Gem Wind’s Environmental Statement for Project Erebus, including Chapter 3 on site selection and alternatives, was published on 14 December 2021 as part of the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment documentation to support its consent application.

By the time of the December 2021 Environmental Statement and associated planning documents, Blue Gem Wind had concluded that West Angle Bay on the Pembrokeshire coast was the most suitable and lowest‑risk nearshore export cable route and landfall for Erebus, despite the relatively long onshore cable route and interactions with multiple designated sites, and the project’s onshore CTMP referenced a cable landfall in the vicinity of West Angle Bay with an approximately 14.8 km cable route to the substation near Pembroke Power Station.

Following completion of its pre-FEED role, OWC entered a further large contract in November 2021 to act as owner’s engineer for the FEED phase of the Erebus floating wind project, continuing to support detailed design and development including electrical network and export cable aspects relevant to the Erebus Transmission system.

Simply Blue Energy and Total established the Blue Gem Wind joint venture in 2020 to develop floating offshore wind sites in Welsh waters of the Celtic Sea, with the 96 MW Erebus project as the first demonstration site located about 44 km southwest of the Pembrokeshire coastline.

Between August and November 2020, Blue Gem Wind completed a full geophysical survey along a 450 m‑wide offshore export cable corridor for Erebus, using multibeam echosounder, side‑scan sonar, sub‑bottom profiler, and magnetometer equipment to acquire data to support detailed export cable routing and design.

By November 2020, Blue Gem Wind had completed the environmental survey programme along the Erebus offshore export cable corridor, finishing grab sampling and drop‑down video surveys designed to inform ecological assessments and refine the export cable routing.

In August 2020, geophysical site investigation works for Project Erebus began, with Rovco contracted by Blue Gem Wind to carry out detailed geophysical surveying of the planned 96 MW floating wind farm area and potential cable routes, including multibeam echosounder, side‑scan sonar, sub‑bottom profiler, and magnetometer surveys to characterise the seabed and sub‑surface conditions.

In August 2020, alongside geophysical investigations, Blue Gem Wind commenced an environmental survey campaign along the Erebus offshore export cable corridor, employing grab sampling and drop‑down video methods within a 450 m‑wide corridor to characterise benthic habitats and environmental conditions to support impact assessment and cable route optimisation.

On 19 August 2020, The Crown Estate awarded seabed rights to Blue Gem Wind for the proposed 96 MW Erebus floating wind demonstration project in Welsh waters of the Celtic Sea, making Erebus the first floating wind project off Wales to secure an Agreement for Lease and enabling the developer to progress environmental assessments, surveys, grid access, and planning consent processes.

On 19 August 2020, Blue Gem Wind signed an Agreement for Lease with The Crown Estate for the Erebus floating offshore wind project, formally executing seabed leasing arrangements under the Offshore Wind Test and Demonstration initiative for up to 96 MW in the Celtic Sea and securing legal rights to advance project development activities.

On 19 March 2020, Total signed an agreement with developer Simply Blue Energy to acquire an 80% stake in the pioneering 96 MW Erebus floating offshore wind project in the Celtic Sea off Wales, marking Total’s entry into the UK floating offshore wind segment.

The formal grid connection offer for up to 100 MW from Pembroke Power Station was executed for Project Erebus, confirming the agreed grid connection point and providing capacity for the floating offshore wind farm.

In February 2020, OWC was contracted by Blue Gem Wind (Simply Blue Energy and Total) to provide pre-FEED owner’s engineering and project development services for the Erebus floating wind project, including project design and cable and electrical engineering, which covers the export cable and grid connection infrastructure later known as Erebus Transmission.

In 2019, Simply Blue Energy commissioned James Fisher Marine Services (JFMS) to carry out initial electrical system studies for Project Erebus, including validating key assumptions such as whether a single 66 kV offshore export cable to shore would be sufficient and assessing electrical design options, spatial layout configurations, export cable corridor definition, and operational methodologies to support early‑stage feasibility work.

In 2019, JFMS developed preliminary offshore export cable corridors for Erebus and undertook desktop constraint mapping using existing datasets, including OceanWise Marine Themes, Welsh Government environmental designations, third‑party marine licences, and the Erebus Geological Desktop Study, to identify seabed, environmental, and anthropogenic constraints and inform outline route development and risk profiling for the export cable.

By late 2019, following initial and refined GIS‑based site selection, peer review, additional data collation, early stakeholder consultation, and discussions on grid connection options, Blue Gem Wind established the location and extent of the Erebus offshore array area in the Celtic Sea as the basis for subsequent environmental and engineering assessments.

Blue Gem Wind submitted an application to National Grid for a grid connection at Pembroke Power Station for an offshore array of up to 100 MW, following identification of Pembroke as the preferred connection point for the Erebus floating offshore wind project.

Blue Gem Wind, described as comprising Simply Blue Energy and Total S.A., is identified as the client and project company for the Erebus floating wind project, which includes subsea export cables, onshore cabling and the onshore substation needed to connect at Pembroke. This establishes a joint development structure between Simply Blue Energy and Total S.A. for the full Erebus project, including its transmission assets such as the offshore export cable to West Angle Bay and associated grid connection infrastructure in Pembrokeshire.

Planning consent for Project Erebus, including its offshore export cable corridor and associated transmission assets, was awarded in Welsh waters. With OWC acting as owner’s engineer for Blue Gem Wind (the Simply Blue Energy and Total joint venture), the project secured the first Marine Licence and Section 36 Consent for a floating offshore wind project in Wales, covering the array and the consented offshore export cable corridor between the Erebus array area and landfall at West Angle Bay. The consented corridor allows installation of up to 49 km of 66 kV HVAC subsea export cable(s), which then connect via buried onshore cables and a new substation into the National Grid 132 kV infrastructure at Pembroke.