First Power

Inner Dowsing Offshore Wind Farm achieved first power on 20 April 2008 — the date Ofgem records as both the project's commissioning date and its Renewables Obligation accreditation date (RO Generator ID R00011RPEN). The Ofgem-recorded commissioning date is the first half-hour the wind farm generated metered electricity eligible for ROC accreditation, making it the authoritative first-power date for UK RO-accredited generators. The 97.2 MW project, owned at the time by Centrica Renewable Energy, comprises 27 Siemens SWT-3.6-107 turbines on monopile foundations and is located approximately 5 km off Ingoldmells in Lincolnshire in the North Sea, alongside the sister Lynn wind farm. Power exports to the National Grid via the shared Middlemarsh Substation in Skegness (PE24). Inner Dowsing first-powered approximately five weeks after Lynn (15 March 2008). Although the first Inner Dowsing turbine entered service in April 2008, the combined 54-turbine Lynn & Inner Dowsing project (194 MW) was not fully commissioned until March 2009 — the official combined commissioning date reported by Centrica. The wind farms were sold by Centrica/EIG to a UK Green Investment Bank / BlackRock consortium in February 2016 and operations were subsequently transferred from Centrica to Siemens in March 2017. The combined Lynn & Inner Dowsing site at the entrance to The Wash was the UK's largest offshore wind farm at full commissioning. Source: REF Renewable Energy Foundation Generator Database, republishing Ofgem Renewables Obligation register data.