Offshore wind cable failure fuels loss at Northland Power
Outage at Gemini hits results at Canadian group that also saw fatal incident at substation project
Northland Power slipped to a loss in the third quarter after a cable outage at one of its offshore wind farms hit production.
Northland saw several months of disruption from June at its 600MW Gemini project off the Netherlands while the cable was repaired, contributing to a 10%, or 81GWh, fall in production at the Canadian group in the July-September quarter compared to the same period in 2023.
The fall in output was among the factors behind a C$191m ($136m) net loss at Northland, reversing a C$43m profit in the year-ago quarter.
Despite the setback, CEO John Brace said the company remained upbeat about its prospects for 2024 as a whole.
“Northland’s third quarter results were negatively impacted by the Gemini cable outage and lower offshore wind production but on a full year basis Northland continues to remain on track to achieve our full year guidance, given the strong performance in the first half of the year,” said Brace.
Brace said: “Following the regrettable safety incident in August, construction of the Hai Long onshore substation is progressing according to its recovery plans.”
The 1GW Hai Long project is one of two offshore wind projects Northland is constructing, along with the 1.2GW Baltic Power in Polish waters, both of which it said are on schedule.
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