3.4 West of Duddon Sands – Pacific Orca
Overview SPR and DONG have an agreement in place with Swire Blue Ocean (Swire), which covered a charter for the installation of theWest of Duddon Sands (WoDS) project.
This arrangement is a charter of a wider framework agreement between DONG and Swire covering three projects in total. By providing the commitment to work on theWODs project and a further two DONG projects, this agreement resulted in Swire investing in a state of the art offshore wind installation vessel, The Pacific Orca (The Orca). The Orca, is amodel specific second generation jack- up for offshore windwhich works inmost adverse sea conditions, reduces the times between positions and has a higher load capacity. The Orca was used to install the monopile foundations and associated equipment for the WoDS project.
This vessel has added supply capacity in a constrained area of themarket and will be utilised by the future pipeline of offshore wind projects.
Competition
A competitive tender process was launched by SPR and DONG for the supply of an installation vessel for three projects which includedWoDS. Seven vessel suppliers participated in the process.
Following this process it was determined that Swire, a new supplier to the offshore windmarket, was the best choice for the project.
Innovation
Capable of carrying and installing up to 12 wind turbine generators each rated at 3.6MW, or 10 foundations, the Orca is the biggest windfarminstallation vessel in the world.
The vessel can be deployed to conduct windfarm installation even under extremely rough weather and sea conditions. She is designed to withstand wind velocity of 65.6ft per second and significant wave heights of 8.2ft.
The vessel facilitates installation of offshore WTGs to a maximum depth of 197ft. She also allows installation of windfarms with ultra-largeWTGs rated at 10MWor higher capacity.
The vessel can be floated up to 56ft above the surface of the ocean using six jack-up legs fastened to the seabed. Each legmeasures approximately 345ft in length.
Pacific Orca provides accommodation for 111 people in single cabins. The overall length of the vessel is 527.9ft. The vessel's deadweight at 18ft draught is 8,400t.
Skills
New crew trained for this second generation jack-up and the state of the art technology, e.g. the cranes. The learning on this project is transferrable to future projects, i.e. the crew.
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