Positive
Project advancing - milestone achieved
Medium Impact
Significant progress or notable issue
Heerema Marine Contractors began installing the first Hornsea 3 HVDC offshore converter station jacket foundation (OCS1, also referenced as Link 01) at the project site approximately 160 km off the Yorkshire coast on 19 March 2026, using its semi-submersible crane vessel SSCV Sleipnir. The substructure had been completed by Heerema Fabrication Group at its Vlissingen yard earlier in the week, then towed to Sleipnir on 18 March 2026. The Notice to Mariners issued for the campaign indicated installation operations were expected to last approximately 3-5 days, paving the way for the topside installation that followed at the end of March. The OCS1 jacket is one of two unmanned converter platform substructures Heerema Fabrication Group is delivering to Aibel under a 2022 EPCI contract; the OCS2 jacket is scheduled for completion in August 2026. This installation is the first major HVDC topside-bearing structure deployed at Hornsea 3 and a critical milestone for the project's 2.85 GW HVDC Light export transmission system supplied by Hitachi Energy and Aibel.