A NORTH-EAST cable maker has won a multi-million pound contract to supply the world's biggest offshore wind farm.

JDR Cables, based in Hartlepool, supply subsea power cables and umbilicals to the offshore energy industry.

The firm has secured inter-array cables and termination work for Orsted’s record-breaking offshore wind farm, Hornsea Project Two, located in the North Sea.

When operational in 2022, the wind farm will supply clean electricity to over 1.3 million homes, and surpass its sister project Hornsea One, as the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

The contract includes 100km, around the same distance as Hartlepool to Leeds, of inter-array cables, all to be assembled in JDR’s Hartlepool factory.

Inter-array cables link turbines together, and carry the clean electricity generated by the turbines to an offshore substation, which converts it to a higher voltage for transmission to shore.

Richard Turner, chief executive of JDR said: “Hornsea Project Two is a 1.4 gigawatt offshore wind project that will be built at the lowest ever price seen in the UK.

"This incredible achievement is being enabled by organisations like JDR and Orsted working collaboratively to push the technical boundaries of offshore wind projects – making them more economic than ever before and leading the way for future developments.”

Patrick Harnett, engineering, procurement and construction director for Hornsea Project Two said: “This contract builds on experience from previous projects including Race Bank offshore wind farm, which we opened earlier this year, and Hornsea Project One, currently in construction.

“As our wind farm projects have grown in size, and distance from shore, so too have the contracts we place within the supply chain.

"The technology we use is also changing as we innovate to build these projects at massively lower cost of electricity into the UK’s grid.

"We are proud to sign this contract with a UK-based firm, and look forward to continuing our collaboration with JDR Cables.”

JDR first opened its Hartlepool factory almost a decade ago and has won a string of high-profile orders in that time.

Earlier this year, the firm agreed a major deal to supply 50km of power cables to Taiwan’s first offshore wind farm, known as Formosa 1.

Work is expected to start at the end of the year.