First offshore substation for Coastal Viriginia Offshore Wind project installed

The 3,907-tonne lift saw the topside installed on the jacket for the offshore substation, which was also installed by contractor DEME. DEME said the project “marks another record lift for our offshore installation vessel Orion.”

“This milestone is the result of the fantastic teamwork and co-operation between DEME, our partners, subcontractors, local stakeholders and our client Dominion Energy,” said DEME. “Together with American suppliers and unions, we continue to push boundaries in offshore wind.” 

Orion will now resume the installation of the transition pieces before moving forward with the second monopile installation campaign for the American offshore wind project.

In February 2025, Dominion Energy said the CVOW Commercial project remains on track and is approximately 50% complete, but the cost of the offshore windfarm has risen.

The company confirmed that estimated total project costs – including contingency and excluding financing costs – have increased approximately 9%, from US$9.8Bn to US$10.7Bn.

The company noted this is the first and only increase since the original project budget was submitted to the Virginia State Corporation Commission in November 2021.

Dominion Energy said the cost increase is attributable to higher network upgrade costs which are assigned by PJM, the regional electric grid operator, to CVOW as part of the generator interconnect process and higher onshore electrical interconnection costs.

Apart from these changes to onshore costs, aggregate costs for other aspects of the project have remained in line with the original budget.