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This poster gives an overview of the key offshore wind operaons and
maintenance acvity covered by this guide. Acvity is centered on the
seven categories which are colour-coded and used throughout the guide.
~12NM
~40NM
Export cable
and grid connecon
Offshore logiscs
ENERGY
ENERGY
Turbine
maintenance
PLATFORM
Onshore logiscs
Array cable
maintenance
Foundaon
maintenance
WORKBOATS
OFFSHORE BASE
Executive summary
The focus of the fledgling UK offshore wind industry has so far been the
development and construction of wind farms in the unforgiving marine
environment. But, as more and more offshore assets are commissioned
and the number of operational wind turbines continues to grow, the technical
and commercial challenges of operating projects is starting to receive much
greater attention.
executive summary
bn
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
2013
2015
2017
2019
Year
2021
2023
2025
The opportunity
The players
Contents
Take a birds
eye view
using the poster
(page 3)
This poster gives an overview of the key offshore wind operaons and
maintenance acvity covered by this guide. Acvity is centered on the
seven categories which are colour-coded and used throughout the guide.
~12NM
~40NM
Export cable
and grid connecon
Offshore logiscs
ENERGY
ENERGY
Turbine
maintenance
Cost
Get to grips
with key
concepts
Section 2
(page 8)
PLATFORM
Onshore logiscs
Array cable
maintenance
Foundaon
maintenance
2.
aon
ministr
18. Ad
r
the
ea g
. W n
17 orcas
f
16
.
co m SAP
-o ari an
rd ne d
ina
o
n
Jack-up
services
15.
a n d Tr a i
n
&E
in
r l
ou ra
Work boats
Sc tu
2. ruc s
10. Ons
ho
electric re
als
cab 11. A
r
an le su ray
d r rve
ep ys
air
s
130
e
barg
rane
4. C ervices
s
Owner
or OEM
6.
mainTurbin
ten e
anc
e
7
sp . Tu
ar rb
e p in
ar e
ts
re
sho n
Off o e
8. bsta nanc
su inte
ma
9. Exporteys
rv
cable su irs
and repa
OFTO
1 st ey
d rv
an su
Turbine parts
and consumables
30
50
70
90
110
Distance from O&M port (NM)
Find out
whos who
in O&M
on
Section
4
ia
Av
3.
(page
18)
OEM
re
Turbine
maintenance
labour
10
5. Offshore
accommodaon
/base
Helicopter services
on
nda
Offshore
Fou airsbase
13.
p
Understand
the size of the
opportunity
Section 3
(page 14)
Owner
14. Liing,
climbing
and safety
equipment
HS
SC
co ADA a
monndion nd
itor
ing
OFFSHORE BASE
Wo
rk
bo
ats
WORKBOATS
1. Onshor
logiscs e
Information
on the specific
work packages
Section 6
(page 32)
2Introduction
Offshore wind O&M is the activity that follows commissioning to ensure the safe
and economic running of the project. The objective of this activity is to make
sure the project achieves the best balance between running cost and electricity
output. O&M occurs throughout the life of the project, which is nominally
20 years. In this industry, O&M is broadly similar to inspection, repairs and
maintenance (IRM) activity in the offshore oil and gas sector.
introduction
O
perations refers to activities contributing to the
high level management of the asset such as remote
monitoring, environmental monitoring, electricity sales,
marketing, administration and other back office tasks.
Operations represent a very small proportion of O&M
expenditure, the vast majority of which is accounted
for directly by the wind farm owner or the supplier
of the wind turbines.
M
aintenance accounts for by far the largest portion
of O&M effort, cost and risk. Maintenance activity
is the up-keep and repair of the physical plant and
systems. It can be divided into preventative maintenance
and corrective maintenance.
P
reventative maintenance includes proactive repair
to, or replacement of, known wear components
based on routine inspections or information from
condition monitoring systems. It also includes routine
surveys and inspections.
Corrective maintenance includes the reactive repair
or replacement of failed or damaged components.
It may also be performed batch-wise when serial
defects or other problems that affect a large number
of wind turbines need to be corrected. For planning
purposes, the distinction is usually made between
scheduled or proactive maintenance and unscheduled
or reactive maintenance.
After the paramount safety of personnel, the second most
important consideration when operating and maintaining
an offshore wind project is the financial return. The objective
of maximising the output of valuable electricity for sale
at least cost can be thought of as driving all decisions
by project owners about planning and carrying out O&M.
Key concepts
Offshore wind O&M involves a diverse range of activities.
However, there are a few fundamental concepts that underpin
the way that the key players are likely to approach O&M.
Some of the most important factors in shaping O&M are:
Availability as a measure of the performance of the asset
Scheduled and unscheduled maintenance the
nuts and bolts of keeping a project running smoothly
Access overcoming the constraints placed on
operations by the weather and sea conditions
Cost reduction a continuing focus for the industry
as a whole
These concepts are explained in the following sections.
Availability
Total cost
Theorecal point
of least cost
Cost
75%
80%
85%
90%
Availability
95%
100%
introduction
Access
Cost reduction
Transit time the time needed to shuttle a service
crew from the O&M base to the place of work.
With limited shift hours available, the time taken to
transport crews to and from a maintenance job cuts
into the amount of time actually working to maintain
the turbines and other plant. The further the project
site is from the O&M base, the less time can be spent
by crews on active work, given the longer transit time
and risk of fatigue.
Accessibility the proportion of the time a turbine
can be safely accessed from a particular vessel and
is dependent on the sea conditions. For example if,
at a particular project, the significant wave height1
is greater than 2m for 40% of the time, a vessel that
can transfer crew and equipment only in wave heights
of 2m or less might be said to have 60% accessibility.
Both of these factors depend, to some extent, on
the average sea conditions in a particular location
accessibility more so than transit time. Accessibility
is especially critical for unscheduled maintenance since
the project operator will often have no opportunity
to plan any production outages for times of calmer
sea conditions. When planning the approach to O&M
for any given project, the owner will seek to reduce
the total cost (direct cost and lost production) by seeking
ways to reduce transit time and increase accessibility
to the turbines.
Significant wave height is a statistical measure of the typical height of sea waves and is used as an indicator of the severity of the sea state.
The Crown Estate: Cost Reduction Pathways
3
DECC: Offshore Wind Cost Reduction Task Force Report
1
2
introduction
Offshore logistics
There is a wide range of conceivable equipment and
techniques that can be used to ensure that technicians can
access wind turbines and other project infrastructure, such
as offshore substations. The main factors that influence the
suitability of the offshore logistics solution include:
Safety and regulatory factors;
Response time (a function of speed);
Flexibility;
Personnel carrying capacity;
Equipment payload;
Weather and sea-state dependency; and
Direct cost (of retaining and using a service).
Horns Rev 2 wind farm in Denmark features a fixed accommodation platform next to the substation.
introduction
Workboat-based
Operating from a port base.
Heli-support
Workboats with support from
helicopters.
Offshore-based
With fixed or floating offshore
accommodation.
Cost
10
30
50
70
90
110
Distance from O&M port (NM)
130
introduction
Onshore logistics
Marine logistics
Proximity
Multiple ports
Aviation support
The base
Future trends
3The opportunity
The UK currently has the most ambitious programme for offshore wind
installation in the world. O&M activity accounts for approximately
one quarter of the life-time cost of an offshore wind farm. Over the next
two decades, offshore wind O&M is going to become a significant industrial
sector in its own right.
the opportunity
2,700
Turbines
~12NM
These data refer to all projects currently being developed in UK waters and do not refer to a particular date.
The final number of turbines delivered at a particular date is likely to differ
3,800
Turbines
~40NM
3,000
Turbines
Operaonal
Under Construcon
Approved
Proposed
the opportunity
Equipment Maintenance
Turbine maintenance the technicians and
equipment needed to inspect and repair the wind
turbines
n Onshore logistics
n Offshore logistics
n Turbine maintenance
n Export cable and grid connection
n Array cable maintenance
n Foundation maintenance
n Back office, administration and operations
This colour coding of O&M activities is also used as a
key to Figures 3.2 and 3.4. A more detailed description
of these categories is provided in Table 3.1 and in the
contract packages in Section 4 and 6.
Seebreeze
500
O&M cost per turbine per year (000)
400
300
200
100
0
Workboat-based Heli-support Offshore-based
the opportunity
2.0
2.0
Offshore-based
Heli-support
Workboatbased
1.0
0.5
1.5
1.5
Jack-up services
1.0
Helicopter services
Offshore base
Work boats
Turbine
maintenance
labour
0.5
Turbine parts
and consumables
0
2013 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Market size
The primary driver of increased O&M activity is the
number of operational turbines. Analysis based on UK
Government projections for offshore wind shows that
the number of installed turbines will increase to more
than 5,500 by 2025 with O&M spend in the categories
identified increasing to almost 2bn per year. By 2020
there could be as many as 50 offshore electrical substations
supplying offshore wind energy to the power grid.
4Commercial practice
Having outlined the size and nature of the offshore wind O&M market
in the previous chapters, this chapter contains guidance relating to practical
commercial issues. In this chapter we attempt to answer questions such as:
Who are the key actors?
How are the works contracted?
How does this vary across the industry?
What are the opportunities?
commercial practice
The so-called big six are generation plant developer/owners with electricity supply businesses, which account for the vast majority of electricity retail in the UK.
They are: Centrica, EDF, E.ON, RWE, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE)
commercial practice
commercial practice
Mother of invention
Down-time risk
Do ng Energy
One advantage of turbine technicians working directly for the wind farm owner
is that they are able to take a long-term view on the project well beyond the
initial five year warranty period.
Michael Simmelsgaard Head of Global Operations, DONG Energy
commercial practice
MCS
commercial practice
commercial practice
CMBL
commercial practice
Case Study 9: The Briggs Group repair and maintenance of offshore cables
commercial practice
Wo
rk
bo
ats
2.
1. Onsho
r
logiscs e
a n d Tr a i
n
n
o
a
i
Av
rge
e ba
n
a
r
4. C ervices
s
Owner
or OEM
HS
&E
in
Owner
14. Liing,
climbing
and safety
equipment
3.
5. Offshore
accommodaon
/base
ao
und rs
o
F
13. repai
6.
mai Turbin
nte
nan e
ce
OEM
10. On
sh
electric ore
als
OFTO
7
sp . Tu
ar rb
e p in
ar e
ts
re
sho n
Off o e
8. sta anc
subinten
ma
ur al
co tur
S
c
.
12 stru eys
v
d
r
an su
t
9. Expor eys
rv
cable su airs
and rep
16
.
co m SAP
-o ari an
rd ne d
ina
o
n
15.
SCA
co DA a
monndion nd
itor
ing
raon
minist
18. Ad
r
the
ea g
. W n
17 orcas
f
cab 11. A
r
an le su ray
d r rve
ep ys
air
s
Contract packages
commercial practice
Onshore logistics
Offshore logistics
commercial practice
Turbine maintenance
Foundation maintenance
commercial practice
Timing
Year 8
Site Allocation
Consents Award
Financial
Investment
Decision
Construction
Start
Operation
Commissioning
Scoping
A wide range of goods and services are required across the lengthy development phase
The key decisions on the O&M strategy are usually only made
quite late in the development process, particularly under the
hands-off approach. Although owners will start considering
options and strategies for O&M earlier in the development
process, they are likely to only be confirmed once the turbine
OEM has been identified. This is because of the critical role
that OEMs play in O&M. At the point when the financial
investment decision is made, the owner and/or OEM will
have identified the O&M strategy and be in the advanced
stages of planning with the host port. The actual operational
details of the strategy, which may trigger certain subcontracts to be let, may be confirmed at an even later stage.
5Conclusions
The UK offshore wind sector is growing rapidly and with it a huge market
for Operations & Maintenance (O&M) services is emerging. In this document,
we have presented a guide designed to outline the most important aspects
of technical and commercial practice in this market, now and into the future.
For those companies considering opportunities for participation in this space,
some key messages from this document are summarised below.
conclusions
1. Onshore logistics
2. Workboats
other small vessels. At
least four berths are
usually required. Whilst
it is often convenient to
be able to dock larger
vessels, such as so-called
floatels or jack-up
vessels, in the same
location the reduced
frequency of visits from
such vessels means that
these can be mobilised or
re-stocked at alternative,
more distant ports.
GLGH
3. Aviation
Helicopters transport technicians to
and from the wind farm. They allow
access in otherwise inaccessible sea
state conditions and their high speeds
and low carrying capacity fits well with
the dispersed nature of offshore wind
projects and the high frequency/low
effort interventions that make up a large
proportion of offshore visits.
To date helicopters have mainly flown
to and from the wind farm rarely
landing on the offshore substation,
with technicians being winched down
to the turbine. For this type of work,
small four to six passenger helicopters
have been used, such as the EC135,
ferrying one or two crews each of
two to three technicians between the
onshore base (or nearby airfield) and
the offshore turbines or substation.
In the event of crews based offshore,
a larger helicopter may act as a
bus transporting a larger number
of technicians to a single point in the
wind farm, mirroring the approach
used in oil and gas.
Helicopters are normally contracted
on a long term basis, with either exclusive
or shared access to the aircraft.
Areva
GL Garrad Hassan
5. Offshore accommodation/base
6. Turbine maintenance
the benefit of mobility
and may be able to deploy
smaller vessels in benign
conditions or utilise
a heave-compensated
offshore access system
(such as Amplemann)
directly from the
accommodation vessel
in more onerous sea states.
Example current
providers: Chevalier
Floatels, Esvagt,
SeaEnergy PLC
SeaEnergy plc
GL Garrad Hassan
The cost of lost revenue due to downtime means that a well-kept project
should not suffer significant delays due
to parts shortages. Large replacement
components can often be taken off
the turbine production line meaning
that the greatest source of delays when
a replacement is needed is the lead
time required to get a jack-up on site.
GL Garrad Hassan
Onshore substation
maintenance comprises
non-intrusive inspections
of switchgear, transformers
and any reactive power
compensation equipment.
Infrequent intrusive
servicing and repairs
may also be required.
Centrica, Dong
Energy & Siemens
Carel Kramer
GL Garrad Hassan
GL Garrad Hassan
GL Garrad Hassan
GL Garrad Hassan
Inspections of safety-critical
devices including:
Fall arrest systems
Davit cranes
Boat landing and ladders
External gates and railings
External evacuation equipment
SeaRoc
Management and
coordination of O&M
activity is important to
wind farm safety and
efficiency. A senior
authorised person (SAP)
is needed on-site at all
times with coordination
responsibility for switching
of all high voltage
equipment.
18. Administration
GL Garrad Hassan
Further information
Centres for offshore renewable engineering (COREs)
Devolved Administrations