Ocean Winds Extends Operations & Maintenance (O&M) Contract with Principle Power for WindFloat Atlantic Project

3 December 2024

Ocean Winds has extended its Operations & Maintenance (O&M) long-term contract with Principle Power for the 25 MW WindFloat Atlantic Project, which validates Principle Power’s service excellence and O&M capabilities. This extension further affirms the operational success of the world’s first semi-submersible floating wind farm and first floating wind project to secure bank financing.

Since the project’s first WindFloat® unit was installed in 2019, Principle Power has provided O&M services to Ocean Winds, who oversees the asset management of WindFloat Atlantic on behalf of the project consortium. These services include Inspections, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) activities, with integrated engineering support, to ensure maximum uptime and availability. Additionally, Principle Power has been providing remote monitoring and data analytics services to measure and enhance project performance.

As a result of the close collaboration with the project’s stakeholders, WindFloat Atlantic has exceeded initial power expectations, in its first five years of operations. The project has also proven highly resilient in extreme weather conditions, withstanding 20-meter waves and wind gusts of 139 km/h without any structural damage. Ocean Winds has also coordinated health and safety for all platform operations with Principle Power, resulting in zero lost time accidents.

At Ocean Winds, we are pleased to continue collaborating and extend our long-term contract with our partner Principle Power. Together with the WindFloat Atlantic team, Principle Power helps us deliver a high-quality operational service that prioritizes safety and allows us to consistently exceed the production expectations of this pioneering project each year, demonstrating the readiness of floating technology for the commercial-scale phase.

Daniel Ribeiro
— Asset Senior Lead Associate at Ocean Winds

The extended contract further validates the maturity of our WindFloat® technology and highlights Principle Power’s expertise designing and operating floating foundations.

The operational success demonstrated at WindFloat Atlantic highlights our proactive approach to operational readiness – anticipating and addressing critical needs earlier in the design process, and planning for operation activities, tools, equipment, and training. We also refine processes for preventative and corrective maintenance, which has a high degree of impact on the project’s efficiency, and positively affects the project’s financial performance across the lifecycle.

This contract extension demonstrates Principle Power readiness to serve as a one stop shop for WindFloat® O&M services, for the first commercial projects in markets like Korea, the United Kingdom, and beyond.

Clara de Moura Santos
— Vice President of Operation & Maintenance at Principle Power

The WindFloat Atlantic project also serves as a research platform for several projects that are advancing the state-of-the-art Inspection, Maintenance and Repair operations. These projects include the EU-Funded Atlantis project, which studies the application of robotic solutions for offshore applications to reduce the levelized cost of energy (LCoE), and the DOE ARPA-E funded DigiFloat project - environmental and structural health monitoring systems to better model, predict, and improve platform performance.

The project’s successful operational strategy, combined with a continuous drive for innovation and efficiency, has established WindFloat Atlantic as a benchmark for performance and reliability in floating offshore wind.

Overview of WindFloat Atlantic

Project Area: 20 km off the coast of Viana do Castelo, Northern Portugal, in the Atlantic Ocean
Type of Generation: Floating Offshore Wind Power
Generation Capacity: 25 MW (8.4 MW x 3 units)
Commercial Operation Start Date: February 2020
Cumulative generation: 336 GWh by October 2024
Electricity Selling Scheme: Combined scheme including Feed-in Tariff

About Ocean Winds

Oceans Winds (OW) is an international company dedicated to offshore wind energy and created as a 50-50 joint venture, owned by EDP Renewables and ENGIE. Based on our belief that offshore wind energy is an essential part of the global energy transition, we develop, finance, build and operate offshore wind farm projects all around the world.

When EDP and ENGIE combined their offshore wind assets and project pipeline to create OW in 2019, the company had a total of 1.5 GW under construction and 4.0 GW under development; OW has been adding rapidly to that portfolio and is now on a trajectory to reach the 2025 target of 5 to 7 GW of projects in operation, or construction, and 5 to 10 GW under advanced development. In 2024, OW’s offshore wind gross capacity already operating, in construction or with advanced development rights granted reaches 18.5 GW.

OW, headquartered in Madrid, is currently present in 8 countries, and primarily targets markets in Europe, the United-States, selected parts of Asia, and Brazil.

For more information: www.oceanwinds.com

About Principle Power

Principle Power is a pure play, global leader in floating wind technology, providing full lifecycle engineering services that ensure reliable, de-risked, and bankable solutions. Partnering with developers, independent power producers, utilities and EPCs, the company delivers integrated designs that minimize project risk and maximize energy output. The company's “300x30” industrialization vision aims to build readiness to enable the deployment of 300 floating wind turbines worldwide by the end of 2030, driven by dedicated expert teams, validated design tools, and real-world operational experience. The WindFloat® portfolio, with four modular designs, is suitable for any project context or supply chain setup. With 105 MW capacity in operation or under construction, the technology has proven resilient in challenging weather conditions, delivering 800 GWh of clean energy. Principle Power has secured exclusivity to supply WindFloat® technology to commercial-scale projects in all key floating wind markets totalling 14+ GW of projects secured or under design contract.

For more information: https://www.principlepower.com/

17 September 2024