HEALTH & SAFETY
VESSEL AND EQUIPMENT SELECTION
Time spent accessing the turbines for both commissioning and the operation and maintenance phases represent a very substantial number of personnel transfers that inherently place people at risk. If these can be reduced by prior commissioning works and even more significantly ultra-reliability of turbines can deliver valuable benefits that could reduce this number of transfers.
Fundamentally the answer is to minimise the amount of time spent offshore.
PERSONNEL TRANSFERS
With the development phase of the Round 3 offshore wind farms around the UK we should ensure we capture the valuable experience gained from the previous rounds as well as other offshore developments around Europe. Each has represented quantum steps and consequently the risks and mitigations are changing as we move further offshore, into deeper water and more remote locations.
Due to the unique aspects of each site that include the ground conditions, the wave and tidal regime as well the geographic location the risks for every project must be considered in detail. The characteristics of a site on the UK west coast or in an estuary environment will have very different challenges to a site further offshore on the UK east coast.
the experience and training of both the marine and project crew. The manning levels must also reflect both the duration as well as the actual nature of the works. With the current pressure on the availability of vessels it is vital that a comprehensive scope of work is developed and a vessel or vessels selected are suitable rather than being driven by what vessels are available.
The Crown Estate is working with other regulatory bodies to develop a Vessel Safety Management Guideline to provide guidance in this process. Following consultation with our Development Partners in Round 3, Renewable UK and other Regulatory bodies, a need for Guidelines has been identified that would provide developers with a framework for selecting and monitoring the operation of vessels during the development phase of a project.
The nature of construction on offshore wind farms is the multiple installations and often the repeated visits to each turbine location. There are very real risks to personnel in transfer between vessels and from vessel to turbine or substation. Often operations are being continued 24 hours a day and so night time, poor visibility as well as wind and wave conditions must be considered.
Ultra-reliability of turbines could dramatically reduce the need for these visits and transfers during the operation and maintenance phase. Consideration at the design stage to include both the requirements during the commissioning phase as well as the very different issues through the long term Operation and Maintenance phase the risks could be significantly mitigated.
In selecting a vessel and equipment it is vital to provide a detailed brief to any third party warranty surveyor as to the location, nature and duration of the works together with any specific risks that have been identified in the risk assessment process. It is essential that vessels are always selected as ‘Fit for Purpose’.
This also applies to the equipment that will be utilised for the project and may be additional to the vessel itself. The assessment of a vessel or vessels must address not only the vessel itself and equipment but also
Image courtesy of Vattenfall
Wind Energy NETWORK
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