Ørsted cuts cost estimate for offshore wind cable protection issues

Ørsted now expects to pay less than half of what it initially expected to spend on repairing and replacing inter-array cables and stabilising others after discovering erosion and risk of failures at some of its offshore wind farms.

The Danish developer had reported the issue with its cable protection systems – caused by unstabilised systems moving across rocks placed on the seabed around the foundations to avoid seabed erosion – a year ago.

It had anticipated to spend around DKK 3 billion (€400 million) on dealing with the issue.

But Ørsted now expects to spend approximately DKK 1.3 billion reinstating the integrity of the cables.

This reassessment is based on “thorough investigations, analysis and fast reactions to stabilise the cables” since the problem was first detected.

However, the Danish energy giant was still hit with a DKK 800 million warranty provision in the first quarter of 2022, according to its financial results for the first three months of the year.

Ørsted revealed the reassessment when announcing its Q1 results today (29 April).

The company reported increases to its operating and net profits in the first quarter, benefiting from higher energy prices and the sale of a 50% stake in a large German offshore wind farm. Click here for the full story.