Dominion Energy Finalizes Selection of Major Offshore Suppliers for Virginia Offshore Wind Project

Dominion Energy accelerated its efforts to enhance a domestic offshore wind supply chain and build a local clean energy workforce following a rigorous competitive procurement process to reach agreements on major contract packages for the 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, the largest offshore wind farm currently under development in the United States.

Dominion Energy last year announced leading wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy as the preferred turbine supplier for the 176 14.7-megawatt turbines to be installed in the 112,800-acre commercial lease area. Charybdis, designed to be the first Jones Act-compliant offshore wind turbine installation vessel, will be used to install those turbines, pending approval by the Virginia State Corporation Commission. Charybdis will be homeported in Hampton Roads and crewed by Americans.

“We are moving the CVOW project forward by working with industry leaders as we bring utility scale offshore wind generation to our Virginia customers,” said Joshua Bennett, Dominion Energy vice president of offshore wind. “These contracts will allow us to manage costs for the benefit of our customers and take advantage of the developing domestic supply chain to deliver on our promise to bring clean-energy jobs to Hampton Roads.”

Here is a brief summary of the recently finalized contracts:

  • EEW SPC, with more than 80 years of experience in production of steel pipe and corresponding pipe components, to manufacture 176 steel monopile foundations, the largest of which will be 268 feet long and weigh 1,755 tons.
  • Bladt Industries to manufacture 176 transition pieces, which weigh as much as 800 tons and bind the monopile foundation and turbine together, while providing physical access to the turbines. Bladt has more than 25 years of experience working with turbine foundations and offshore substations.
  • Bladt Industries and Semco Maritime to manufacture components for the three offshore substations, which are multi-story units weighing about 4,000 tons each, a topside platform with helicopter landing pad 157 feet above the water and support structures installed in the sea floor.
  • DEME Offshore US LLC and Prysmian Group as a consortium to provide Balance of Plant services, including the transportation and installation of the foundation and substation components, and install the subsea cables. DEME Offshore, with a vast array of offshore experience, has installed more than 2,600 offshore wind turbine generators and 2,100 foundations worldwide.
  • Prysmian Group, a global leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry will provide all of the subsea inter-array and export cables that will deliver the clean, renewable offshore wind energy to shore.

“The largest wind farm in Europe to date, Hornsea 1&2, is already on top of our monopiles. Now we are pleased to announce that the largest wind farm in the USA will also be built with our foundations. With the construction of Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Dominion Energy is getting closer to its goal of being carbon neutral, in terms of power generation, by 2050, and we are pleased that we can also do our part,” said Heiko Mützelburg, CEO/Managing Director of EEW SPC.

“We are proud to be selected by Dominion Energy for this contract based our experience and proven track record. Likewise, we are extremely proud to be part of building up the growing American Offshore Wind industry,” said CEO Anders Søe-Jensen from Bladt Industries. “CVOW will be the American’s largest windfarm with 2.6 gigawatts of output creating many local jobs in construction and years of operation.”

“Dominion Energy has created a visionary project in Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, and we look forward to contributing to the green transition in Virginia. We are proud of the contract for three 880 MW substations, which we consider a vote of confidence in Semco’s and Bladt’s tried and tested partnership and our strong track record of delivering competitive projects within electrical infrastructure for offshore wind through two decades,” says Steen Brødbæk, CEO, Semco Maritime.

“This significant contract will allow us to further build out our U.S. footprint, working with the local supply chain, unions, and by deploying local workers and in doing so, we are ultimately supporting the growth of the U.S. offshore wind industry,” said Sid Florey, President, DEME Offshore US LLC.

Two companies, which are both leaders in their own field, are partnering to offer a winning solution to Dominion Energy,” said Hakan Ozmen, EVP Projects, Prysmian Group. “Dominion Energy decided to award the contract to the Prysmian-DEME Offshore consortium in light of their unique combination of financial strength, experiences, expertise, fleet and cable supply capabilities, which are unparalleled in the industry and fundamental for the smooth management of large-scale projects such as the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, as they allow to reduce interface risks during the project execution phase.”

Monopile foundations, transition pieces, and turbine components will be staged on 72 acres at Portsmouth Marine Terminal as part of a 10-year lease agreement with the Virginia Port Authority. Doing so will employ many union jobs, such as longshoremen, stevedores, crane operators and other building and construction trade jobs, as well as skilled labor from the North America’s Building Trade Union and their state affiliate Virginia Building Trades.

U.S.-flagged vessels compliant with the Jones Act, a century old federal law regulating maritime commerce, will be used to transport components from PMT to the construction site in the CVOW lease area that begins 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast and extends an additional 15 miles East into the Atlantic.

The low voltage energy generated by the wind turbines will be collected at the offshore substations and transmitted to shore at a higher voltage along buried undersea export cables. Once the substations are energized, they will be serviced by newly created positions on the Dominion Energy offshore wind operations and maintenance team.

CVOW is a vital part of Dominion Energy’s clean energy strategy to meet standards outlined in the Virginia Clean Economy Act and to achieve the company’s net zero carbon dioxide and methane emissions by 2050. Once complete in 2026, CVOW will generate enough clean, renewable energy to power up to 660,000 Dominion Energy Virginia customers’ homes.

Latest Issue:

Today, no frontier is beyond an offshore operator’s capacity. While Remote Marine Operations can mean different things to different ocean…

Your cON&Tent matters. Make it count.

Send us your latest corporate news, blogs or press releases.

Search