What’s going on with Dominion Energy’s Charybdis WTIV?

Screenshot from YouTube video

Not much has emerged about the status of Dominion Energy’s giant wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) Charybdis since its April 15 delivery by the Seatrium AMFELS shipyard, the last delivery from the Brownsville, Texas, yard before its sale to Turkey’s Karpowership.

A YouTube video of the ship at the time of its delivery gives an idea of its size and complexity.

The Charybdis has been built to work on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, which is “just a few months away from delivering much-needed electricity to our customers,” Robert Blue, Dominion’s president, CEO & chairman. told analysts in a third quarter earnings call on October 31.

“We successfully completed 100% of monopile installation one month prior to the conclusion of the piling season and are very pleased with this tremendous milestone for the project,” he said. “We’ve installed 63 transition pieces to date with all 176 transition pieces now fabricated. Turbine fabrication remains on schedule. Earlier this week, we installed the second offshore substation jacket and will place the accompanying topside shortly. The third and final offshore substation is nearly complete and will be installed in the first quarter of next year.

“We now expect first turbine installation to occur late next month and continue to expect first power to be delivered to our customers in late first quarter of next year, approximately five months from now.”

DELAYS

But Blue noted that, “given delays with Charybdis, we have significantly reduced the schedule’s weather and vessel maintenance contingency, which could push a few of the final turbines into early 2027.”

Getting into more details on Charybdis, Blue said the American made Jones Act-compliant wind turbine installation vessel “has been a challenge.”

“I’m extremely disappointed that Charybdis has again not met expectations,” he said. “I recognize the importance of executing consistently against any commitment, and we failed to deliver regarding Charybdis. We built Charybdis to derisk our installation process. We continue to believe that it will represent a strategic advantage, providing enhanced schedule certainty, which ultimately translates into cost certainty. The vessel successfully completed sea trials received sign-offs and arrived in Portsmouth, Virginia in September. Upon arrival, Siemens Gamesa successfully completed all necessary modifications for turbine handling and installation.

“Simultaneously punch list items were identified that require remediation prior to the vessel being cleared to begin turbine load-out and installation. While all major systems are operating well, there are a variety of quality assurance level items that require addressing and those tasks are currently underway to ensure that the vessel can commence work as quickly as it is safely able to do so. It’s become clear that while the ship’s design and construction methods are consistent with global best practices, we didn’t properly account in our timing estimate for the risk inherent in being the first Jones Act-compliant wind turbine installation vessel to be built and regulated in the United States. The vessel is expected to be cleared to load and install turbines in November. As a reminder, unlike monopile installations, there are no time of year or time of day restrictions on installing turbines. Finally, any modest delay beyond November won’t impact first power timing in late first quarter of 2026.

“One final note on Charybdis. Project costs continue to be approximately $715 million.”

In a Q& A session, in answer to a question from Shahriar Pourreza of Wells Fargo Securities, Blue said:

“As you know, this is the first Jones Act-compliant wind turbine installation vessel to be built in the U.S. and subject to U.S. regulatory oversight. It’s a big ship. It’s 472 feet long. It’s 184 feet wide, weighs 27,000 tons. It’s got some complex systems on it. It’s got a 2,200-ton capacity crane. It’s got a jacking system that’s capable of creating a 40-meter air gap under the hall when the ship is jacked up. And those systems, the crane, the jacking system, the dynamic positioning system, they are all operating very well.

“So earlier this month, local regulators when it arrived in Portsmouth conducted a standard new to zone inspection. And that identified two primary areas of concern. The first was the material condition of certain components, primarily within the ships electrical systems. And then second, the need for documentation that confirmed that the systems we built has to met U.S.-approved codes and standards. So that created this punch list of about 200 items that have to be addressed before we can begin loading turbines. So let me talk a little bit about what we’re doing. The ship is divided into 63 zones, our crews, including qualified marine electricians are doing detailed surveys, and they’re either documenting or immediately mitigating discrepancy.

“So to date, we’ve done over 4,000 inspections across 69 electrical systems including 1,400 cable inspections. We’ve got 200 people working around the clock of that original 200 punch list items, we’ve closed out about 120. So it’s important to know not all those items are created equal. Some punchless items are a little more complex and will take longer to resolve. But the progress has been really good. And so based on the pace of work the commitment of the team we’ve got there, highly confident that we’ll work our way through all the punch list items and be ready to start operating in November.”