In October 2011, Greater Gabbard Offshore Winds Limited (GGOWL), which is jointly owned by Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) and RWE, said it was looking at counter suing Fluor after it was hit by a £300 million claim earlier in the year by the contractor.
Fluor claims GGOWL has carried out unnecessary testing and repairs to monopiles and transition pieces at the site. While in Novemeber, GGOWL said 52 out of 140 transition pieces are defective at the wind farm.
Speaking about the move, RWE Innogy chief operating officer Paul Coffey said that monitoring equipment had been installed on the defective structures and limit their operations. All 140 turbines are now installed.
He added that GGWOL has now "formalised" its counter-claim for a figure that is "potentially in excess of what Fluor is claiming."
In its quarterly results Fluor said Greater Gabbard has "experienced a number of issues which substantially increased the estimated cost to complete the project". It said the project included charges of $60 million, while 2010 was impacted by provisions totalling $343 million.
In addition to the monopile dispute, the project has faced a number of issues during construction including the bankruptcy of subcontractor Subocean, the death of a worker in May 2010, and even an unexploded WWII mine.
