Vessel Supply Train

Cause

With the ongoing pressure on cost reduction, O&M costs are a big factor. The increasing size of individual wind farms, the reduced need for physical visits by improved wind turbine design and remote possibilities for O&M actions will change the strategy for O&M of offshore wind farms. With larger distance from shore, usage of Service Operation Vessels) SOV’s will increase.

Also, the impact of downtime of every single wind turbine will be larger because of the increasing capacity of the individual wind turbines. The nearby and continuous presence of a SOV is therefore paramount. In present day logistical concepts however, the SOV leaves the wind farm periodically in order to return to port for new supplies and for crew changes.

Objective

To minimise the need for SOV port visits, the aim in this project will be to research the general concept of supplying SOV’s at sea, also covering the periodic crew change of wind turbine technicians on board of the SOV’s. Sea supplying of SOV’s will maximize the SOV deployment in the wind farm, resulting presumably in larger uptime of wind turbines improving the business case of wind farm owners.

Short description

In this short study the aim is to support offshore wind O&M by researching a logistical concept based upon a fixed timetable: one (or more) supply vessels will follow a pre- planned route at pre-set time windows in order to supply the SOV with fuel, food etc. and with the necessary spare parts, replacement crews and technicians and to collect waste streams and off-duty staff for further processing/travelling in port.