Hartlepool firm scores huge contract and celebrates worldwide record for winning orders

A Hartlepool firm has won a contract to supply more than 48 miles of cables for a massive Belgian windfarm.
JDR Cables' site in Hartlepool.JDR Cables' site in Hartlepool.
JDR Cables' site in Hartlepool.

Greenland Road-based JDR will make the cables - as well as a range of accessories to go with them - for the SeaMade offshore windfarm.

And it clinched the deal after winning a competitive tender process.

JDR has clinched a huge order to make 48 miles of cables for a massive Belgian wind farm.JDR has clinched a huge order to make 48 miles of cables for a massive Belgian wind farm.
JDR has clinched a huge order to make 48 miles of cables for a massive Belgian wind farm.
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It prompted JDR bosses to praise its workforce in Hartlepool for making products which are such good quality, more than 900 miles of it has been ordered worldwide.

The project is the single largest windfarm being funded and built in Belgium. When it is complete, it will supply renewable energy to 485,000 houses.

The contract for the cables has been signed with DEME Offshore and Robert Weeks, Sales Manager at JDR, said: “We are extremely proud to have won this competitive tender through our track-record of delivering market-leading cable technology to the offshore wind industry.

“To date we have supplied over 1500 km of cables globally which is a fantastic achievement that is down to the quality of our products and the expertise of our people.”

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Mr Weeks added: “We are thrilled to say we are playing a part in Belgium’s largest offshore windfarm.

“As an organisation we are really looking forward to collaborating with DEME Offshore on this impressive project, which will provide power from renewable energy to a substantial amount of homes in Belgium.”

JDR will design, manufacture and deliver the aluminium core inter-array cables which will connect the 58 Siemens 8.4MW turbines.

They will carry clean generated electricity to an offshore substation for transmission to the offshore grid.

They are expected to go online by the end of this year.

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The SeaMade offshore windfarm is 30 miles off the coast of Ostend and will integrate two wind sites known as Mermaid and Seastar.

It’s 10 years since JDR opened a new £20million state-of-the-art Hartlepool plant, as exclusively revealed by the Hartlepool Mail, and with bosses saying they hoped to bring 200 jobs to town.

Since then, the firm has grown and the facility has won a string of high-profile orders. JDR is owned by the TFKable Group,