Revolution Wind Commissioning Pushed Back to 2026

August 15, 2024, by Adrijana Buljan

Ørsted’s 704 MW Revolution Wind offshore wind farm in the US will not go into full commercial operation next year but in 2026, according to the developer.

In a comment to Ørsted’s interim report for the first half year 2024, Mads Nipper, the company’s group president and CEO, explained the postponement was due to a delay in the construction of the project’s onshore substation.

“Despite encouraging progress on our US offshore wind project Revolution Wind, the construction of the onshore substation for the project has been delayed. This means that we have pushed the commercial operation date from 2025 into 2026, which led to an impairment. This is, of course, unsatisfactory, and we continue our dedicated efforts to de-risk our portfolio”, Mads Nipper said.

For the first half of 2024, Ørsted reported an operating profit (EBITDA) of DKK 14.1 billion (EUR 1.89 billion), up from DKK 10.2 billion (EUR 1.37 billion) during the same period last year.

The company’s earnings from offshore sites amounted to DKK 11.3 billion (EUR 1.51 billion), an increase of DKK 2.3 billion (EUR 0.31 billion) compared to the first half of 2023. The growth was driven by the ramp-up of generation at Ørsted’s offshore wind farms Greater Changhua 1 and 2a, South Fork, and Gode Wind 3, as well as higher wind speeds, inflation-indexed CfDs, and green certificates, the developer says.

Ørsted reported impairment losses that negatively affected H1 2024 by DKK -3.2 billion (EUR -0.43 billion). The losses were primarily due to the decision to cease the execution of the FlagshipONE project, a construction delay related to the onshore substation for Revolution Wind, an updated fair value measurement of Ocean Wind seabeds, and a rise in US long-dated interest rates across Ørsted’s US portfolio, the company states.

On the other hand, Ørsted reversed previously booked impairment losses on Sunrise Wind, as it was selected to negotiate an OREC agreement with the state of New York.

As for the Revolution Wind project, which will feed electricity into the grid in Rhode Island and Connecticut, the offshore wind farm achieved its “steel in the water” milestone in May this year with the installation of the first turbine foundation.

Located approximately 15 miles (about 24 kilometres) south of the Rhode Island coast and 32 miles (approximately 51 kilometres) southeast of the Connecticut coast, Revolution Wind is adjacent to Ørsted and Eversource’s South Fork Wind, America’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm.

The offshore wind farm will comprise 65 Siemens Gamesa 11 MW wind turbines and, once operational, will deliver 400 MW of offshore wind capacity to Rhode Island and 304 MW to Connecticut, powering more than 350,000 homes across the two states.