RISK MANAGEMENT RISKS IN OFFSHORE WIND FARM PROJECTS
In the UK Round 2, project owners built medium size offshore wind farms with increasing complexity when the industry had to deal with emerging problems such as grouting specifications, shortage of experienced skill set, issues with long lead items, high vessel costs, key contractors going into liquidation. Some projects experienced considerable cost escalation during the construction phase of projects, not to mention delay in completion dates.
SO WHERE DID THINGS GO WRONG? One of the problems was the weaknesses in contracts – leaving projects exposed to serious risks which were not adequately assessed for consequences in the event of default in contractual obligations.
Another issue was over-confidence among some project team members in their assessment of technical and commercial aspects of their packages, eventually leading to costly design changes during the construction phase, sometimes also
quality failures, unexpected number of drills actually required to install monopile foundations; actual soil conditions resulting in mismatch between budgeted installation activities and actual installation activities; lack of vessel availability; inadequate installation crane capacity; grouted connection issue; late design decisions; lack-of experienced offshore installation man-power availability and interface issues between the project packages.
COMMON AIM
The project teams set out with the common aim of completing their projects as designed on time within budget and without safety and environmental incidents. They prepared project execution plans; selected contractors; assessed technical and commercial risks; focused on best HSE practice; addressed interface issues and utilised their support functions to enable smooth running of the projects. Some of the projects still ended up with cost increases and delays as well as serious safety issues that not only delayed the projects but also caused strain on corporate reputation and project finances.
resulting in delay to the project programme. Some teams chose to rely solely on qualitative risk assessments; this approach did not provide them with quantitative information on the cost and schedule. Hence the impact of risks which was overlooked, was experienced throughout the construction phase of projects.
COMMON PROBLEMS
The offshore wind farm project teams experienced common problems resulting in cost increases which could have been avoided thus making the project financially more viable. Some of those common problems include manufacturing
LESSONS LEARNED
We now have crucial lessons learned from actual project experiences and we can better address the ways in which cost can be saved without compromising quality and schedule throughout offshore wind farm construction in new projects.
Jale Cairney Business Development Director ABS Group Ltd
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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