SSE, Equinor and Vårgrønn have received an eight-month extension to the Contracts for Difference (CfD) start date for part of the 1.2 GW Dogger Bank A offshore wind farm in the UK, as turbine repairs continue to delay commissioning.
The Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC) has approved a revised CfD start date of 31 July 2027 for the project’s first 300 MW contract tranche, awarded under Allocation Round 3 (AR3). The previous contractual deadline was 30 November 2026.
The developers are understood to have advised LCCC that Dogger Bank A would be unable to meet the commissioning milestones and minimum generating capacity requirements needed to activate the contract by the original deadline.
The revised schedule follows construction difficulties in 2024, including two blade failures involving GE Vernova Haliade-X turbines. The incidents prompted further inspections, which identified additional repair requirements across the wind farm.
The project experienced blade damage incidents in May and August 2024. Following the August incident, the project team reported that GE Vernova’s investigation had linked the failure to conditions encountered during turbine commissioning.
More than ten turbines are understood to require replacement blades and work on certain nacelle components. The two turbines affected by the earlier blade failures are also expected to receive replacement towers, nacelles and blades.
These repairs have added to the commissioning workload at Dogger Bank A, which was originally scheduled for completion in 2024.
The 95-turbine Dogger Bank A project, located approximately 130 km off the UK coast, is now expected to become fully operational in the third quarter of 2027, according to the latest SSE energy market disclosure cited in the report.
Despite the extended timetable, the developers maintain that the wind farm will be substantially available for electricity generation by the end of 2026.
A project spokesperson attributed the CfD extension to the continuing effects of the 2024 construction setbacks and their impact on commissioning. The developers indicated that the revised timetable was consistent with delays previously communicated to the market.
The commissioning difficulties described have affected Dogger Bank A only.
The extension applies to the first 300 MW CfD tranche. No changes have been reported for the remaining two contract tranches, which retain their existing long-stop dates of 31 January and 31 May 2027, respectively.
The revised CfD date does not represent a new target for the wind farm’s first electricity generation. It concerns the contractual requirements for bringing the first 300 MW CfD tranche into effect, while turbine repairs and commissioning continue.
