Paid by electricity billpayers to Moray Firth wind farms since 1 January 2026
Paid for by the public: as electricity billpayers, and as taxpayers standing behind the loans.
Contracts for DifferenceA government contract that tops up a wind farm's income when the market price is low, and claws money back when it is high. more › top-ups, from the Low Carbon Contracts CompanyThe government-owned company that manages and pays out Contracts for Difference, and publishes the daily figures. more ›'s own published data. Beatrice, Moray East and Moray West. These are payments on top of what the farms earn selling their power.
The estimateLabels on the evidence register showing how strong a figure's source is: an official document, a press report, arithmetic, or an estimate. more › runs from the end of the last published day at the average net rate of the 30 days before it. It is replaced by real figures when LCCCThe government-owned company that manages and pays out Contracts for Difference, and publishes the daily figures. more › publishes them.
Dividends paid to owners based outside the UK
Each farm's latest filed dividendsA payment a company makes to its shareholders out of its profits. more ›, split by its owners' stakes. The percentages are from each company's own Companies HouseThe UK government registry where companies file their accounts and ownership details, most of which the public can read for free. more › filing. Moray East's filing names its shareholders; Beatrice's names holding companiesA company that exists mainly to own shares in another company, often sitting between a wind farm and its ultimate owners. more ›, and who stands behind two of them (Red Rock Power and TRIG) is as reportedA number taken directly from a company's own accounts or a regulator's own published document, not calculated or estimated by this site. more › by the owners themselves. Guernsey is a Crown DependencyA self-governing territory, like Guernsey, linked to the UK Crown but outside the United Kingdom and outside UK tax and company law. more ›, outside the UK.
| Owner | Based in | Farm and stake | Dividend share |
|---|
Dividends: Beatrice £84.1m, year to 31 Mar 2025; Moray East £104.2m, year to 31 Dec 2025; Moray West paid none. Not counted: interest on shareholder loansMoney a company's own owners lend to it, on which the company pays interest back to them, separate from bank debt. more ›, which also goes to owners, and the foreign shareholders of SSE plc itself. The domicile of the Equitix vehicle at Beatrice has not been traced.
Every day this year
Vessels seen working, 2 October 2026
Day ratesThe charge for hiring a vessel, including its crew, for one day; rarely published for offshore wind contracts. more › are the best estimates available, because no operatorThe company that owns or charters out a ship, as distinct from the client paying to use it for a particular job. more › or charterer publishes them. They come from an offshore vessel fleet manager who runs this site. No operator or charterer has confirmed any of them, and none was asked. Each is the rate that fleet manager would expect for a vessel of that class on that kind of work, not a statement about any actual contract. Where a range is given, the meter counts its low end. This meter runs from midnight on 2 October, the day the vessels were seen, and assumes all eight stay on hire. It is kept apart from the subsidy total: it is in US dollars, it is the contractors' charge rather than a payment from billpayersAnyone who pays an electricity bill. Most of the costs on this site are recovered this way, not from taxes. more ›, and there is no public record of which vessels worked on which days before 2 October. The Caledonia geotechnical surveyA ship equipped to investigate seabed conditions, used before cables or foundations are installed. more › notice (KingfisherA fisheries-liaison service that publishes notices warning fishing vessels about offshore works, including which vessels are involved. more › 5902) was marked complete by 2 October, so no survey vessel is counted.
| Vessel | Estimated rate, US$/day | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| SEVEN KESTREL (diving support vessel) | 180,000–280,000 | On station about 13nm north of Macduff. Wind farm work, in the fleet manager's assessment; client not published. Range is for active saturation diving; about 100,000 on standby. |
| SKANDI ACERGY | 100,000 | Heading for Nigg. Job not established. |
| ESVAGT WIND 8 (daughter craft of the SOV ESVAGT ALBA) | 50,000 | Destination Moray East. The rate covers the service operation vessel and its daughter craft together, on a long-term charter, in the fleet manager's assessment. |
| WIND PEAK (jack-upA vessel with legs that lower to the seabed, lifting the hull clear of the water to work steadily on offshore structures. more ›) | 320,000–420,000 | Notice to marinersAn official warning published to alert ships of hazards or activity in an area, such as cable works or vessel positions. more ›: Moray West transformer swap, Sept/Oct, about 14 days. Range reflects a heavy-lift installation vessel taken off its normal work for a short campaign. |
| SEACAT SOVEREIGN (crew boatA Crew Transfer Vessel: a small, fast boat that ferries technicians out to offshore wind turbines. more ›) | 15,000 | Live AIS routeAutomatic Identification System: a tracking signal most ships broadcast, letting their position and route be followed publicly. more › "WICK<->BOWL", Beatrice. |
| NJORD ZEST (crew boat) | 15,000 | Live AIS route "WICK>BOWL>WICK", Beatrice. |
| Guard vesselAn Emergency Response and Rescue Vessel: a standby ship providing safety cover for workers at an offshore site. more › (ERRV), name not published | 5,000 | Kingfisher notice 6142: 24-hour emergency response cover for Wind Peak at Moray West. |
| Crew boat, name not published | 15,000 | Kingfisher notice 6142: additional crew transfer support for Wind Peak at Moray West. |
| Total, low end | 700,000 | 420,000 of it tied to a wind farm by a source. |
Where SEVEN KESTREL is working
The diving support vessel held station about 13 nautical miles north of Macduff on 2 and 3 October 2026, moving at 0.1 knots, with its AIS destination set to "12 NM MCDUFF". The charts below measure where that is, from published coordinates.
- About 900 m east of the Caledonia wind farm's planned export cable corridorA broad, mapped band within which a cable route could run; not a chosen route, width or list of affected land. more ›, and about 1,100 m east of the southern end of SSEN's Shetland HVDCHigh Voltage Direct Current: the technology used for long subsea electricity cables, including the Shetland link. more › Link 2 survey corridor, at the 4 October position. At the 3 October AIS position both are about 1.6 km away. Neither corridor has cable laid in it yet.
- About 4.9 nautical miles east of the Moray East wind farm's operational export cable corridor, the nearest installed power cable.
- About 23 nautical miles from the nearest oil or gas pipeline, at the decommissioned Beatrice oil field.
No notice to mariners names the vessel or its job. With no oil or gas pipeline within 23 nautical miles, the fleet manager's assessment is that it is on wind-related work.
On 11 October 2026 it was still stopped within about 2 km of the 3 October position, AIS destination "MCDUFF", 17 days after leaving Aberdeen on 24 September. A search that day of the published notices for Beatrice, Moray East and Moray West, and of the Kingfisher bulletin, found none that names it.
These rates are estimates and are open to challenge. Anyone who holds the actual charter rate for any vessel here, the operator or charterer included, can send it with the document that shows it on the missing figures page. A documented figure replaces the estimate once it has been checked.
Low Carbon Contracts CompanyThe government-owned company that manages and pays out Contracts for Difference, and publishes the daily figures. more ›, "Actual CfDA government contract that tops up a wind farm's income when the market price is low, and claws money back when it is high. more › Generation and avoided GHG emissions", dp.lowcarboncontracts.uk, downloaded 2 Oct 2026; contracts INV-BEA-001, INV-BEA-002, AR2One of the periodic government auctions at which Contracts for Difference are awarded to competing projects. more ›-MRY-107, AR2-MRY-207, AR2-MRY-307. Moray West (AR4-MRY-010) has not reached its contract start, so no payments are recorded. Negative values are payments from the farm back to billpayersAnyone who pays an electricity bill. Most of the costs on this site are recovered this way, not from taxes. more ›. Ownership: Companies HouseThe UK government registry where companies file their accounts and ownership details, most of which the public can read for free. more › registers of people with significant controlA person or entity recorded as having substantial ownership or control of a UK company, held on a public Companies House register. more ›. DividendsA payment a company makes to its shareholders out of its profits. more ›: each company’s filed accounts. Vessel positions from AISAutomatic Identification System: a tracking signal most ships broadcast, letting their position and route be followed publicly. more › (shipais.uk, MarineTraffic) and Kingfisher noticeA fisheries-liaison service that publishes notices warning fishing vessels about offshore works, including which vessels are involved. more › 6142.