The seaport of Ustka will be home to an operations and service base for the PGE Group’s offshore wind farms and an Offshore Wind Energy Competence Centre. PGE Baltica, which implements the PGE Group’s offshore program, has presented plans for developing port land for offshore projects.
“The decision to establish our future operations and maintenance base in Ustka is an important step in the PGE Group’s offshore wind energy projects. Our investment will not only change the face of the port. We are convinced that it will also be an impulse to the development of the entire region and the creation of new jobs,” said Wojciech Dąbrowski, CEO of PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna.
Offshore wind farms require constant monitoring and maintenance. Located nearby and with the necessary infrastructure and logistics facilities, a service centre is a key element of any offshore investment.
“Building an operations and maintenance base in Ustka is our optimal solution. Thanks to the good navigational and technical conditions of the port, and the appropriate depth of both the approach and the harbour channel, service units will be able to sail from here to the area of offshore wind farms without obstacles. The onshore facilities provided by the location in Ustka, a well-connected city with accommodation facilities and open to participation in the offshore revolution, are also not without significance,” said Dariusz Lociński, CEO of PGE Baltica.
Specialists working round the clock at the service base will monitor the operation of offshore wind farms and the condition of equipment located offshore and onshore. The base will provide technical and storage facilities for service crews. It will contain, among other things, a warehouse for spare parts and tools necessary for servicing offshore wind farms, berths for service units, as well as office and utility facilities. The base will also coordinate emergency and routine maintenance work.
A Center of Competence for Offshore Wind Energy will also be established at the Port of Ustka. Specialists-to-be will acquire qualifications and competencies to work on infrastructure maintenance and offshore wind power development. The Competence Center will also test and implement new innovative technologies related to offshore wind energy.
The operations and maintenance base will be built by PGE Baltica. The area on which it will be built is located between Bohaterów Westerplatte Street (on its eastern side) and the bank of the Slupia River. The company has already begun developing the most optimal concept for the development of the site. The redevelopment of the wharf is planned in such a way as to make it possible to use part of the site by technical staff earlier, while still at the stage of construction of offshore wind farms. According to the schedule, the first construction work will begin in 2024. The service centre will begin operations in 2026.
More about PGE Group’s offshore program
PGE Group is currently developing three offshore wind farm projects in the Baltic Sea. Two of them are the Baltica 2 and Baltica 3 offshore wind farms, which comprise the Baltica Offshore Wind Farm with a total capacity of 2.5 GW. PGE is implementing this project together with Danish partner Ørsted. Both phases of the Baltica offshore wind farm have location decisions, environmental decisions, and transmission grid connection agreements with the operator, and have been granted the right to a contract for difference (CfD – ed.). They will begin supplying electricity to Polish households later this decade.
In parallel, PGE is preparing for the construction of a third project – the Baltica 1 offshore power plant. The installation is scheduled to be used after 2030 and will have a capacity of about 0.9 GW. PGE Baltica, the company responsible for implementing the PGE Group’s Offshore Program, began wind measurement studies for the project in May 2022. Baltica 1 already has a location decision and a connection agreement. By implementing further offshore wind farm projects, PGE intends to fulfil its strategic goal of achieving at least 6.5 GW of generating capacity in offshore technology in the Baltic Sea by 2040. The PGE Group’s offshore program is implemented by PGE Baltica.
