Ørsted Lost Its Incheon Community Channels Before the Exit Story Broke

Original Korean article: Incheon Today

Ørsted's consultative bodies with residents and fishers in Incheon were terminated one after another beginning early this year, months before reports emerged that the Danish developer was reconsidering its Korean offshore wind business, local outlet Incheon Today reported on August 31.

According to the report, three channels ended separately from the start of the year: the offshore wind regional council operated with residents and fishers, the shipowners' council for the specific sea area, and the shipowners' council for the general sea area.

Incheon Today noted that Ørsted appointed David Taeseung Yoo as its new Country Manager for Korea early this year and that the consultative bodies were terminated in succession thereafter. How the company restores trust and re-secures community acceptance is the task ahead, the paper said.

Fisher groups formally terminated the contract in March

Shipowner organisations in the specific sea area, including the Incheon Gillnet Association, sent an official letter to Per Mejnert Kristensen, Ørsted's APAC CEO, on March 30 giving formal notice of termination of the "contract on the formation of the Incheon offshore wind specific sea area shipowners' council." The groups said trust had not been restored and that they were not treated as equal partners.

The groups had raised the issue in letters from December 30 last year, asking whether the consultative body was "merely a means for the developer to obtain permits," and said they would decide whether to continue the relationship after meeting the APAC CEO. A face-to-face meeting was held in Incheon on January 27, which the groups described as a turning point in restoring damaged trust, followed by a February 12 letter from the APAC CEO pledging open listening, transparent communication and stronger long-term cooperation.

The groups said no substantive change followed. Discussions on normalising council operations, cooperation on the offshore wind auction, marine and fisheries environmental monitoring, the extent of lost fishing grounds, navigation safety, and fishery damage surveys and compensation went in circles, they said, leading to the March 30 termination notice.

"Having worked with Ørsted in the consultative body, they only calculate whether the Incheon sea makes money and treat us as a means to obtain permits," said Park Deok-shin, chairman of the Incheon Gillnet Association. "Rather than continuing a foreign company's offshore wind project amid absent trust and an uncertain future, protecting Korea's marine ecosystem, the fishing industry and fishers' livelihoods is the higher priority."

Why this reaches beyond community relations

Community acceptance is a scored element in Korea's fixed-price competitive auction, and the government treats developer-run consultative structures as the institutional mechanism for securing it. How a consultative body was actually operated therefore becomes evidence when acceptance is assessed.

Ørsted is developing Incheon Offshore Wind 1 and 2, with capacity of up to 1.47GW, in the specific sea area off Incheon in the Yellow Sea, a fishing-control zone designated under Korea's Fishing Vessels Safety Operation Act near the Northern Limit Line. The site overlaps shipping routes serving Baengnyeongdo and the other northwestern islands, and reviews must account not only for regular ferry routes but also for emergency safety routes and the navy's escort system. In 2023, Ørsted reduced the project footprint at the generation licence stage after the site was found to overlap the Baengnyeong–Incheon ferry safety route. The area is also Korea's largest blue crab fishing ground.

Equipment safety has become a further variable. A turbine fire occurred on August 8 at Greater Changhua in Taiwan, which Ørsted operates; the report also cites past turbine fires, structural drops and vessel collisions at Ørsted-operated and related European wind farms.

An Ørsted official said the company would respond after internal discussion. No specific answer has been given.

KWI developer profile — Ørsted

2 projects in Korea totalling 1,470 MW. Compiled from the KWI database. Not part of the source article.

Incheon 2 Offshore Wind — this article

Capacity	600 MW
Location	Incheon
Developer	Ørsted (with KOEN · POSCO MOU)
Status	EBL Approved
Licence	Electricity Business Licence 2023
EIA	main-phase consultation under way (ME2025C010)

Incheon 1 Offshore Wind

Capacity	870 MW
Location	Incheon
Developer	Ørsted (with KOEN · POSCO MOU)
Status	EBL Approved
Licence	Electricity Business Licence 2023
EIA	main-phase consultation under way (ME2025C009)

Project data: KWI database — Electricity Business Licence records, EIA filings (ME2025C009, ME2025C010), Electricity Regulatory Commission minutes, and pre-EBL permit filings.