Karl E. Humberson jokes that his leadership role in building the nation’s largest offshore wind project: Dominion Energy’s $10 billion, 178-turbine CVOW off the coast of Virginia, which is about to ‘ finish at the end of 2026, began as a respite from sub-zero temperatures they endured in a Midwest gas project for the company. “When I got back to my hotel room, I got a call asking if I’d be willing to help build” something new hundreds of miles to the east: giant ocean-based machines at the ready to generate 2.6 GW of energy on a 113,000-acre site 27 miles offshore. “They could have asked me to be a cook and I would have said yes at the time.”
On a more serious note, Dominion’s project manager says his instinct to take on the challenge now involves managing a global supply chain, complex logistics and a policy change to install giant Siemens Gamesa turbines , each 869 feet high at the tip and generate 14.7 meters. MW, as well as a large supporting infrastructure, all in a risky physical environment – project conditions “I’ve always been attracted to,” he says.
Joining the company in 2011 with a marine engineering degree and experience in the energy sector, and elevated last July to vice president of offshore wind construction, Humberson is making headway in a sector driven by recovery in inflation, gaps supply chain and approval policies during the first Trump administration. that was reversed under President Joe Biden, but could resurface from the erratic campaign comments of now President-elect Donald Trump.
As a regulated utility, with established project returns and hard-won ratepayer charges from regulators, and with key contractors and costs mostly locked in before COVID-19, Dominion has avoided many financial issues faced by commercial developers. CVOW “is a credible testament to the ability to build large-scale wind farms,” says Theodore Paradise, a lawyer and policy expert at developer CTC Global.
“Once you get your head around the scale of the components, which is amazing, you realize that … moving things around the world becomes quite complex,” says Humberson. He gained insights into the construction of CVOW’s two pilot turbines in 2020, although they are only 6MW each, they now provide “real reliability statistics for modeling” and have helped regulators with permit approvals, he says .
Humberson also oversaw the off-site construction in Texas of Charybdis, the 472-foot-long turbine installation vessel soon to arrive at CVOW. It is the first to comply with decades of federal rules that allow only domestic vessels at offshore wind sites. American developers must now use complicated and expensive transfer of foreign-made components and barge-assisted installation. Manufacturing delays canceled earlier use of the ship by other developers and pushed the price up to $715 million, but Humberson says these are offset by the higher costs and risks of the old method
Humberson, on the right. in the cab of the giant Orion crane, he notes at CVOW’s sorting site in Portsmouth, Va., with DEME’s first crane operator, Gary Waumans, before equipment supplied by the Belgium-based contractor is loaded onto a ship to install foundations at sea for the project’s 176 wind turbines, each of 14.7 MW.
Photo courtesy of Dominion Energy
Work is underway, with 82 turbine foundations installed since CVOW’s project shutdown at the end of October for whale migration. It will restart in the spring, boosted now by a $2.6 billion private investor deal last year with Stonepeak for a 50% stake in the project.
Humberson says the steady progress of the project has increased confidence in the supply chain. South Korean manufacturer LS Greenlink’s unit announced a $681 million high-voltage submarine cable plant in Chesapeake, Va., in 2024, a first in the United States, with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) , saying it will “show the [state] as a manufacturing leader in the offshore wind industry.”
Mark D. Mitchell, Dominion’s senior vice president of construction for all energy projects, points to Humberson’s management duties. “In addition to having excellent business and construction skills and being a problem solver, Karl develops his employees by giving them maximum exposure to all facets of project management,” he says. CVOW is “a fascinating megaproject and being the first US utility to build, own and operate one of the world’s largest offshore wind projects has attracted … talented employees who want to be on the ground floor of something special “.
Observers point to the importance of this project being successful. “Very few power plants are that big, and no other form of generation could be built in two years,” says Willett Kemp, a professor of engineering and marine science at the University of Delaware and a nationally known expert on energy and policy issues. offshore wind . “Virginia needs electricity and there’s only one project ready to go,”
He adds that CVOW “would advance the learning rate and supply chain of the overall offshore wind industry. Delays, especially for a project already permitted and ready to build, would be costly and detrimental to Virginia. Hopefully the president-elect and his advisers make the right trade-offs.”
Humberson sees more potential work in developing Dominion’s remaining offshore wind lease sites, or in other of its growing energy areas.
“I feel like the industry didn’t think we’d be where we are today,” he says.
