RWE‘s 1.4 GW Sofia offshore wind farm in the UK North Sea has been offline since early November following damage to an onshore cable that the company attributes to a third party. Repair work is underway, with electricity generation expected to resume by the end of the month.
Michael Müller, Chief Financial Officer of RWE, disclosed the disruption during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on 11 November 2026.
Müller said that 88 of Sofia’s 100 wind turbines had already generated electricity before the outage. He expects power generation to restart by the end of November, with all 100 turbines generating electricity by the end of 2026.
During the earnings call, Müller said the cable damage had been caused by an external party rather than RWE. The company intends to seek compensation but has not included any potential recovery in its financial figures.
RWE has not identified the party responsible or disclosed further details about how the cable was damaged. The financial impact of the interruption has also not been quantified.
Sofia is under construction on Dogger Bank in the UK North Sea. The offshore wind farm comprises 100 Siemens Gamesa SG 14-222 DD turbines, each rated at 14 MW.
The final turbine was installed on 10 June 2026, completing the turbine installation campaign undertaken by Cadeler using its jack-up vessel Wind Peak, according to RWE’s official announcement.
Although turbine installation has been completed, the project remains in the construction and commissioning phase.
The project is also supported by offshore service vessels. In August, HMT News reported that Acta Marine‘s service operation vessel Acta Gemini had begun a long-term charter with RWE to provide offshore accommodation and Walk-to-Work services for commissioning and subsequent operation and maintenance activities.
