Balfour Beatty Engineering Services (BBES) has been awarded the electrical infrastructure contract for the extension of Scottish Power Renewables’ Whitelee Wind Farm.

Located at Eaglesham Moor to the south of Glasgow, Whitelee is already the largest onshore wind farm in Europe with the existing 140 turbines having the capacity to generate 322MW, enough to power around 180,000 homes.

The extension will add another 75 turbines raising the generating capacity to 539MW, enough to power about 300,000 homes.

The extension will see sixty nine Alstom ECO 100 turbines added, each with a 3MW capacity and six ECO 74 turbines with 1.67MW capacity each.

BBES was an integral part of the team responsible for delivering the first phase of the project ahead of schedule, an impressive task considering the often severely harsh weather conditions with which the team had to contend, as well as the challenging terrain and the vast size of the site.

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For the extension, BBES will be working with John Sisk and Son and Roadbridge (Sisk Roadbridge JV) to provide the electrical infrastructure works including the substation and control building services, the supply and installation of switchgear and the installation of around 400,000 metres of power and control cabling.

Alan McCann, Regional Director at BBES said “Following BBES’ involvement in successfully delivering the original Whitelee Wind Farm, we are again very proud to play our part in delivering the country’s renewable targets.”

As part of the Balfour Beatty Group, revenues of £550 million and a workforce of 3,200, BBES operations are conducted from centres across the UK, each committed to customer service, efficiency, quality management, workplace health and safety and protecting the environment. Capabilities include design, project management, construction, installation, testing and commissioning; providing electrical and instrumentation services to the commercial, education, healthcare, retail, R&D, nuclear, power, infrastructure, renewables, defence, oil and gas, petrochemical, industrial and process related sectors.

Winning the extension of Whitelee Wind farm further reinforces BBES’ ability to deliver high profile, sustainable projects and reflects the company’s position as market leader in the delivery of renewable energy schemes in the UK.

The project is due to be completed in 2012.

(GK/KMcA)