Germany's EWE awards maintenance contract for 30 turbines at Riffgat offshore wind farm

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 9, German wind O&M service provider Deutsche Windtechnik (DWT) was awarded the maintenance and related technical services contract for the Riffgat offshore wind farm, and will provide services for all 30 Siemens SWT-3.6-120 turbines at the project starting from January 1, 2027. The initial contract term is 2 years, with three 1-year extension options; if all are exercised, the service period can be extended until the end of 2031 at the latest.

This contract covers annual turbine maintenance, specialized inspections of lifting equipment and personnel access facilities, as well as identification of wind farm operational optimization projects. The contract also includes multiple optional services, including remote troubleshooting and second-level technical support, on-call fault handling and repair, and warehousing and spare parts management. DWT will assume a relatively complete scope of technical services ranging from turbine maintenance and on-site inspections to fault response and spare parts supply.

Riffgat is located in the German North Sea, about 15 kilometers northwest of the island of Borkum. It consists of 30 Siemens turbines in the 3.6 MW class, with a rotor diameter of 120 meters and a hub height of 90 meters. The turbines use steel monopile foundations of up to about 70 meters, and the water depth at the project site is about 18–23 meters. EWE project materials indicate a construction period of 14 months for the wind farm and confirm that the project also includes an offshore substation.

Offshore maintenance operations will be organized mainly from Borkum, with the DWT maintenance team using the client's operations base on the island. In the event of faults in winter, the relevant operations will be organized from DWT's service station in Emden, and technicians will be transported to the offshore turbines by helicopter as needed. DWT was previously responsible for turbine maintenance at the Riffgat wind farm from 2019 to the end of 2021. This contract award means that, after an interval of about 5 years, it has regained the maintenance business for this project.

This full turbine maintenance contract and the helicopter transport service procurement recently advanced separately by EWE fall under different procurement scopes. On August 29, EWE issued a tender for helicopter services for the Riffgat offshore wind farm from 2027 onward, planning to procure services for transporting personnel and equipment from Emden or Borkum to the offshore wind farm, covering planned maintenance, unplanned repairs, and fault handling. The helicopter contract is planned to run from April 1, 2027 to March 31, 2029, with two one-year extension options, and the deadline for applications to participate is October 1.

Riffgat has been wholly owned by EWE since the end of 2020, and wind farm operations management is undertaken by Omexom Renewable Energies Offshore GmbH. This DWT contract corresponds to the maintenance and technical services for the 30 turbines and does not change the existing ownership of the wind farm assets or the entity responsible for operations management.