Orlen's Baltic Power Delivers First Offshore Wind Power to Poland's Grid

Electricity from Orlen's Baltic Sea wind farm is now flowing into Poland's national grid, with 54 of a planned 76 turbines built and a target capacity of 1.2 GW.

The project, named Baltic Power, has reached what Orlen calls the first power phase, the point at which an offshore wind farm exports its first electrons while construction continues around them. Additional turbines will go through start-up and testing in the coming weeks, according to the company.

Orlen puts overall completion at 80%, counting the 54 installed turbines, 350 km of inter-array and export cables, and the assembly of both offshore substations. Verification is running across the full chain at the same time: turbines, offshore substations, the onshore substation, and control systems.

Output will climb in step with construction until the farm reaches its 1.2 GW target, Orlen said, describing it as the first operation of its kind carried out in Poland.

Offshore works began at the start of 2025, according to Orlen chief executive Ireneusz Fafara, who said the first power reached the grid in the same period of activity. The milestone comes after close to two years of work on the project.

"Baltic Power is an investment that will work for decades - it will not only supply energy and strengthen security, but will support the construction of a new sector of the Polish economy," Fafara said.

The wind farm sits inside a far larger capital commitment. Orlen is running what it describes as the largest investment program in the history of Polish energy, with total spending of up to PLN 380 billion.

For a global audience tracking offshore wind cost curves and delivery risk, the sequencing here is the substance. A first power declaration at 80% completion, with two offshore substations energised and 350 km of cable laid, marks the transition from marine construction risk to commissioning risk. The remaining 22 turbines determine how quickly the asset moves from partial export to its 1.2 GW rating.

The staged ramp Orlen describes, where capacity rises turbine by turbine rather than at a single commercial operation date, is standard practice for large offshore arrays and lets a developer bank revenue from completed strings while later positions are still being installed and tested. The parallel verification of onshore substation and control systems is the other gate, since export capability depends on the landfall infrastructure as much as on the turbines themselves.