Cerulean Plans $25B Offshore Wind "Power Main" for Oil Platforms

Illustration courtesy Cerulean Winds

PUBLISHED MAY 4, 2023 11:35 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

Cerulean Winds, one of the biggest players in offshore wind power for oil platforms, has announced plans to build out a massive $25 billion subsea electrical grid to deliver renewable power as a utility service for oil and gas extraction. 

Together with Frontier Power, Cerulean will develop the North Sea Renewables Grid (NSRG), an integrated power transmission system that offshore platforms will "plug into" for clean power. This system will be powered by hundreds of floating offshore wind turbines producing gigawatts of green electricity.

The first phase will focus on repowering oil and gas installations via construction of an HVAC "offshore ring main" around the Central North Sea producing region. Work with customers and suppliers has already begun, and Cerulean plans to have power online in 2028 - before Scotland's offshore supply chain gets busy building out the utility-focused ScotWind leases. 

“We recognize that to achieve meaningful reductions at the pace required, a reliable basin-wide approach is needed that [platforms] can plug into when they are ready," said Dan Jackson, the founding director of Cerulean Winds. "Basin-wide scale gives greater flexibility, lower pricing and supply robustness." 

In March, Cerulean won three lease options in the Central North Sea in Scotland's special-purpose INTOG leasing round. The combined maximum potential at these sites comes to about three gigawatts of power, giving Cerulean the majority of the capacity on offer in the auction. 

Last year, Cerulean Winds signed a smaller agreement with Ping Petroleum to electrify the Avalon FPSO in the Central North Sea, using a single floating wind turbine. Avalon will be among the first production platforms powered mainly by offshore wind in the UK.