Polish Company to Build Offshore Substation for Ocean Winds’ BC-Wind Project

Ocean Winds has selected CRIST Offshore to deliver the offshore substation for the BC-Wind offshore wind farm in Poland.

According to Ocean Winds, this is the first Tier 1 agreement the developer concluded with a Polish supplier for its 390 MW BC-Wind project.

Under the agreement, CRIST Offshore will be responsible for the design, construction and commissioning of the project’s offshore substation.

The offshore substation, which will be built at CRIST’s shipyard in Gdynia, is currently in the design phase, with the offshore installation of the OSS planned for mid-2027.

The OSS will be equipped with all offshore primary electrical equipment and will weigh approximately 2,000 tonnes.

“The signing of this agreement is an important step confirming CRIST Offshore’s competence and readiness to implement projects on the demanding offshore wind market”, said Dan Finch, Ocean Winds’ Country Manager in Poland. “Cooperation on this project shows that Polish companies are able to effectively compete with global leaders and play a key role in the development of renewable energy sources.”

“Cooperation with Ocean Winds is the culmination of our consistent work, which we have been doing for several years, manufacturing structures for the offshore market. Today, we are ready to implement such a project from start to finish. This proves that we have gained the right competences and know-how that allow us to take comprehensive actions – from the design phase to the delivery of the finished product”, said Bogusz Pniewski, Member of the Management Board of CRIST Offshore.

The BC-Wind offshore wind farm, Ocean Winds’ first project in Poland, is proposed to be built about 23 kilometres north of the municipalities of Choczewo and Krokowa in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, across two sites.

The sites were granted grid connection conditions in September 2020, followed by the signing of a grid connection agreement in March 2021. In 2021, Ocean Winds completed Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) surveys for BC-Wind, and in June 2021, the project secured the right to a Contract for Difference (CfD) from the Energy Regulatory Office.

The geophysical and geotechnical survey campaign in both the offshore wind farm area and the export cable corridor was concluded in 2024. The project is currently at the stage of selecting and contracting key suppliers for the components of the offshore wind farm, strategic planning for the service base, and finalising geotechnical surveys on land, according to information on Ocean Winds’ website.

In February this year, Ocean Winds signed a vessel reservation agreement with Cadeler for the installation of the turbines at the BC-Wind offshore wind farm site in the Polish Baltic Sea.