Orsted sees no impact from extreme weather in Texas

Orsted, however, said a majority of its onshore wind and solar projects in the United States do not have firm power delivery obligations. "While our trading team does use some firm obligations as part of our revenue management, which is common in the industry, we had unwound the majority of our short positions before the power market was impacted by the extreme weather," Orsted said.

Orsted, the world's biggest developer of offshore wind farms, said on Friday it currently sees no significant impact on earnings from the extreme weather situation in the U.S. state of Texas, which has prompted German power producer RWE to warn of a hit to profits.

"We currently assess that any EBITDA-impact on a Group level is not material," an Orsted spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters. "The entire Orsted team has been working hard to keep all our facilities generating power, while focusing on the safety of our employees, the integrity of our assets, and the communities in which we operate."

Denmark-based Orsted has a total of 1,658 MW onshore wind capacity in operation in the United States, mostly in Texas, making the U.S. the company's largest onshore wind market. Freezing temperatures hitting Texas have put onshore wind farms out of service and forced operator RWE to buy electricity at sky-rocketing prices, it said on Friday.

That would translate into a low- to mid-triple-digit million euro hit to core earnings from onshore wind and solar this year, RWE said. Orsted, however, said a majority of its onshore wind and solar projects in the United States do not have firm power delivery obligations.

"While our trading team does use some firm obligations as part of our revenue management, which is common in the industry, we had unwound the majority of our short positions before the power market was impacted by the extreme weather," Orsted said. Orsted also has 1,077 MW of solar plants under construction in the United States.