BLOG: JDR rebrand celebrates five years of success with TFKable
: Today we celebrate five years of world class innovation as part of the TFKable Group with the unveiling of our refreshed brand identity.
As part of the TFK.Group since2017, JDR has become a key player in the UK’s offshore supply chain portfolio, not only supporting the country’s energy transition but also underpinning it as a global leader within the growing offshore wind sector. Redesigning JDR’s brand identity to align with TFKable further unifies us as a group, whilst also reflecting our integral role within the global energy supply chain.
As a business journeying through the energy transition and as part of our rebrand, we want to be transparent with all our stakeholders around our contributions to emission targets. This is why we are committed to developing a net zero plan of our own in 2023. To deliver this we have registered with Science-Based Targets to ensure we gather the right data to create meaningful objectives.
In just five years together with TFKable we have enjoyed considerable successes, including celebrating our 50th offshore wind project contract, providing subsea cables for the very first commercial wind farms in the US and Taiwan (Vineyard Wind and Formosa 1 respectively) and to the world’s largest installed wind farm, Hornsea 2 in the UK.
JDR’s first venture into offshore wind was to provide the array cables for the Beatrice Demonstrator project, a pioneering project to connect 5 MW turbines to the Beatrice offshore platform. This scope for JDR was for the supply of 2 short cable lengths of 33kV array cable, but at the time of delivery, it was the deepest water windfarm project worldwide. Following this early supply of cable technolgies, JDR provided the 33kV array cable for two other UK projects which at the time of their construction were the largest capacity windfarms ever built. These first commercial projects for the company were Greater Gabbard and London Array. JDR cable supply project then followed with Meerwind, Sandbank, Veja Mate & Hohe See. More windfarms followed such as Dudgeon, Galloper and Hornsea 1, which until 2021 was thelargest operational windfarm world-wide, and during this period, JDR provided our 1st aluminum core manufactured projects for Nordsee One Offshore Windfarm in Germany and Rampion Offshore Windfarm in the UK. In addition, we were delighted to open new headquarters in Tomball, Texas in 2021, bringing a local presence to our oil and gas US operations – improving efficiencies and reducing transport costs for clients.
These successes and our progress in offshore wind have culminated in the announcement of a new £130m state-of-the-art subsea cable manufacturing facility in Cambois, near Blyth, Northumberland. Agreeing support from the UK Export Finance’s Export Development Guarantee, our new facility, which is planned to open in 2024, is set to create 171 high-quality local jobs while safeguarding 270 jobs at our existing UK facilities.
Innovation is also paramount to us as a company. When the market transitioned to a 66kV rating for array cables, JDR was again at the forefront of technology development of this product, providing cable for the 1st commercial-scale windfarms East Anglia 1 and Moray East. JDR also provided the array cables for the commercial-scale Beatrice Offshore Windfarm. JDR continued with technology development of 66kV, with the dynamic cable for the floating windfarm Windfloat with many more following this such as Golfe de Lion and Hywind Tampen projects.
We have continued to be the company of firsts, with the global supply of array cable, by providing the cable for the 1st commercial-scale windfarm in the US on Vineyard Wind and the 1st commercial-scale windfarm in Taiwan for the Formosa 1 Phase 2 windfarm. JDR continues to support the growing demand for array cable and has most recently manufactured array cable for EDF’s Neart na Gaoithe, Vattenfall’s Kriegers Flak, Parkwind’s Arcadis Ost 1 & Orsted’s Hornsea 2 windfarms.
Together with TFKable, we will continue to invest in our teams and technology to support the need for higher voltage cables and innovative thinking around projects, and deliver our products and services in an ever cleaner, smarter and sustainable way.
With our refreshed identity we will continue to build on over 25 years of combined experience in the energy sector, boasting extensive and highly sought after expertise across subsea cables and umbilicals, as well as high voltage and advanced productivity land cable technology.