Trowse Solar Farm

The brief

Island Green Power engaged BPI to undertake the design of a 33kV contestable connection design for Trowse Solar Farm.  A full design was required to be completed and submitted to UK Power Networks for approval in line with the 31st March Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROC's) connection deadline.

The approach

BPI has a dedicated connections team delivering connection solutions throughout the UK.  With in-house civil, HV plant, power system and protection expertise available, we were able to complete the design for the client’s programme for UK Power Networks to approve.  All land and Point of Connection (POC) agreements were sought prior to the commencement of the design stage.  BPI undertook all landowner negotiations for performing the earthing studies, which were delivered by the in-house dedicated earthing team.

The challenges

The major challenge was to deliver a high number of renewables projects which came in, all with the same tight March deadline, but in different DNO areas.  The BPI team nevertheless provided a detailed project programme to ensure all stakeholders were aware of the milestone project dates.  We ensured that the most up-to-date required information was available at the time of undertaking the design works.  This included the POC offer from the DNO, fault levels and switchgear specification for the site, ensuring the design could be carried out to the delivery deadlines.

The delivery

The BPI team produced a detailed scope of work for this contestable connection design project.  This was supported by a set of deliverables for the client to review so that the submission fully met the project requirements.  For this project a detailed suite of construction drawings was produced, including the cable route, electrical/earthing calculations and drawings, together with the civil design associated with the DNO substation.