Subsea Technological Challenges in Offshore Wind Report 2.0

Subsea Technological Challenges in Offshore Wind

Output from Event

Prepared by: J. McCallum

Approved by: G. Drummond

2.0 Issued for distribution 05.12.16

Ver. Reason for Issue

Issue Date

05.12.16

Ver: 2.0 Subsea Technological Challenges in

Offshore Wind – Output from Event of 148

© Copyright NSRI, 2016

VERSION RECORD SHEET

Version Issue Date

Section Description of Update

1.0 15.11.16 Issued to committee for review discussion

1.1 23.11.16 Incorporating comments from committee

2.0 05.12.16 Issued for distribution.

05.12.16




TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................... 6

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................ 7

2.1 BACKGROUND ...................................................................................... 7

2.2 OBJECTIVES ......................................................................................... 8

2.3 EVENT FORMAT ..................................................................................... 8

2.4 RESULTS .............................................................................................. 9

2.5 CONCLUSIVE REMARKS ....................................................................... 10

2.6 TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP ...................................................................... 12

3. BACKGROUND .......................................................................................... 13

4. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................ 15

5. OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................. 16

6. EVENT FORMAT ........................................................................................ 17

6.1 PRE-EVENT PLANNING ......................................................................... 17

6.2 EVENT ............................................................................................... 17

6.3 POST-EVENT ACTIVITIES ..................................................................... 18

7. RESULTS ................................................................................................... 19

7.1 GENERAL REMARKS ............................................................................. 19

7.2 ISSUES .............................................................................................. 19

7.3 ADOPT ............................................................................................... 20

7.4 ADAPT ............................................................................................... 20

7.5 DEVELOP ............................................................................................ 21

7.6 COLLABORATE .................................................................................... 22

8. TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP .......................................................................... 23

9. CONCLUSIVE REMARKS ............................................................................ 25

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APPENDIX I: LIST OF “NSRI MATCHMAKER” THEMES....................................... 27

APPENDIX II: EVENT AGENDA .......................................................................... 30

APPENDIX III: DELEGATE LIST ........................................................................ 33

APPENDIX IV: PRESENTATIONS: NSRI ............................................................. 34

APPENDIX V: PRESENTATIONS: ORE CATAPULT ............................................... 45

APPENDIX VI: PRESENTATIONS: ROVOP .......................................................... 56

APPENDIX VII: PRESENTATIONS: BVG ASSOCIATES ........................................ 62

APPENDIX VIII: PRESENTATIONS: ATKINS OFFSHORE WIND .......................... 70

APPENDIX IX: PRESENTATIONS: JDR CABLES ................................................ 105

APPENDIX X: PRESENTATIONS: ARUP ............................................................ 117

APPENDIX XI: PRESENTATIONS: SEAWAY HEAVY LIFT .................................. 124

APPENDIX XII: LIST OF IDEAS GENERATED ................................................... 125

CABLES & ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE .................................................... 125

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ................................................................... 127

OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE ................................................................... 130

SUB-STRUCTURES & FOUNDATIONS ............................................................ 134

INSTALLATION .......................................................................................... 138

APPENDIX XIII: LIST OF IDEAS GENERATED - SORTED .................................. 143

ISSUES .................................................................................................... 143

ADOPT ..................................................................................................... 144

ADAPT ..................................................................................................... 146

DEVELOP .................................................................................................. 147

COLLABORATE .......................................................................................... 148

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1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The National Subsea Research Initiative (NSRI) extends its thanks, in no particular

order, to the following for their:

Organisation and coordination of the event

Trish Banks, Subsea UK

Collaboration with NSRI in organising the event, arranging presenters and defining the

technological challenges

Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult

Promotion of the event

Rebecca Cox, BIG Partnership

Presenters at the event

Andrew Tipping, ORE Catapult

Moray Melhuish, ROVOP

Alan Duncan, BVG Associates

John Foley, Atkins

Jeremy Featherstone, JDR Cables

Zoe Crutchfield, Arup

Alan MacLeay, Seaway Heavy Lift

Chairpersons

Alan Duncan, BVG Associates

John Foley, Atkins

Jeremy Featherstone, JDR Cables

Zoe Crutchfield, Arup

Alan MacLeay, Seaway Heavy Lift

Scribes

Dr Gordon Drummond, NSRI

Jamie McCallum, NSRI

Christer Fjellroth, NSRI

Andrew Tipping, ORE Catapult

John Butler, Wood Group

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2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2.1 BACKGROUND

NSRI met with ORE Catapult in March 2016 to discuss ways in which the organisations

could work together for the mutual benefit of their respective industries. NSRI in wanting

to help subsea technologies break into the offshore wind market, with ORE Catapult

looking to tap into the expertise of the Subsea UK membership. Out of this meeting the

subsea technological challenges facing the offshore wind industry were defined. These

formed an “NSRI Matchmaker” database for the offshore wind industry to mirror NSRI’s

offering in oil and gas. It was also agreed that a joint event be held in Aberdeen.

The “NSRI Matchmaker” is an online resource which NSRI uses to marry industry need

with academic capability and supply chain offering. Industry needs are agreed with the

relevant industry bodies and grouped in the online database under agreed “NSRI

Matchmaker” themes. An unbiased appraisal of capability is included with profiles for

each University REF 2014 submission. Companies and centres of excellence in the supply

chain are then free to submit profiles of their offerings and current technology

development activities under the relevant “NSRI Matchmaker” themes. The aim is to

partner end users with technology researchers and developers in order to advance

technology development in the subsea industry.

The aim of the event was to communicate these technology challenges to the subsea

industry and to generate a suite of ideas that could help to solve these challenges and

lower the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) for offshore wind farm developments.

The event took the form of a collaborative workshop attended by technical delegates

from across the subsea industry. Delegates were presented with the outputs of previous

NSRI workshops and an overview of NSRI and ORE Catapult’s meeting to provide the

context of the event. The technological challenges in the “NSRI Matchmaker” for offshore

wind were described by subject matter experts. Delegates were then asked to discuss

potential solutions to these challenges in groups chaired by the subject matter expert for

each “NSRI Matchmaker” theme.

The purpose of this report is to document the subsea technological challenges and

potential solutions for the offshore wind industry identified during the event. It describes

how these challenges and solutions were captured, categorised and evaluated to produce

a series of recommendations of concepts that could be progressed further. The ideas to

be progressed are summarised in a technology roadmap grouping them into short,

medium and long term developmental activities. It is hoped that this will serve to drive

forward innovation and ultimately deliver advances in subsea technology which will help

to lower the LCOE of offshore wind farm developments.

05.12.16




2.2 OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the Subsea Technological Challenges in Offshore Wind event were:

1. To advise the industry on the support available to companies seeking to diversify

their offering into offshore wind from NSRI, ORE Catapult and Scottish Enterprise

(SE).

2. To highlight high potential areas for diversification into offshore wind.

3. To communicate the subsea technological challenges facing the offshore wind

industry, agreed by NSRI and ORE Catapult, through subject matter experts.

4. To gather the subsea industry to brainstorm ideas around the “NSRI Matchmaker”

themes for offshore wind and the technological challenges presented by the

subject matter experts.

5. To communicate the potential solutions proposed at the event through an output

report, executive summary and technology roadmap.

2.3 EVENT FORMAT

The structure of the event was agreed between NSRI and ORE Catapult during a meeting

of the two organisations in March 2016. It was proposed that the event take the format

of previous, successful NSRI led events such as the 2015 Hackathons and the Subsea

Storage Workshop from April 2016.

An introduction to the event and help available to companies looking to diversify was

followed by presentations from each of the subject matter experts on the subsea

technological challenges. The presentations from the event followed the general

structure outlined below.

Overview – NSRI

Help available to companies looking to diversify into offshore wind – ORE Catapult

Example of successful diversification through technology development - ROVOP

Subsea technological challenges

o Cables & Electrical Infrastructure – JDR Cables

o Environmental Conditions – Arup

o Installation – Seaway Heavy Lift

o Operations & Maintenance – BVG Associates

o Sub-Structures & Foundations – Atkins Offshore Wind

Delegates were then split into brainstorming groups aligned to their individual expertise.

Each group was to cover one of the presentations given by the subject matter experts,

who led each group.

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Scribes were assigned to each group in order to capture the ideas generated on idea

cards designed for the event. As part of the exercise delegates were asked to consider

which issues and ideas had merit. These were marked with stickers on their cards and

were captured in order to identify which ideas industry identifies as best to prioritise.

The completed idea cards from the scribes were gathered and transcribed by NSRI. The

list of ideas was reviewed thoroughly by NSRI in order to check for duplication and any

erroneous information. NSRI did not seek to intervene or change the voice or tone of the

proposed solutions in any way.

2.4 RESULTS

In reviewing the notes from the table scribes it was clear that there was a mix of

different content in various contexts. This was to be expected when capturing

conversations occurring in a group, brainstorming environment. The notes were

therefore separated into “issues” and “ideas”.

The list of ideas were further categorised into the following classifications:

Adopt: A focus area which can bring benefits in the short term through immediate

implementation.

Adapt: Less mature concepts which require further work to mature to a level

where they can be adopted.

Develop: Immature technologies and concepts that need significant work prior to

introduction in the longer term.

Collaborate: Industry behaviours that could be promoted to enable the

advancement of technology or the lowering of the LCOE of offshore wind farm

developments.

Some proposals from the sessions may appear in more than one category if required.

The listing of the ideas generated during the workshop and their discussion is in the full

report. Those ideas which were marked by delegates as having merit are included in the

technology roadmap, which is provided in the executive summary.

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2.5 CONCLUSIVE REMARKS

The objectives described at the start of the process have been met. The technological

challenges were presented to industry and feedback on potential solutions captured in

the full report.

Operations & maintenance (O&M) – particularly inspection, repair and maintenance

(IRM) activities – has been identified in industry studies as the highest potential area for

diversification of existing UK industry capability into offshore wind. 40% of the typical

lifecycle costs of offshore wind farm developments come from O&M requirements. Based

on UK Government projections for offshore wind deployment the O&M costs for more

than 5,500 turbines could be worth £2billion per annum by 2025.

Given the existing IRM capability in the UK subsea industry this is a significant

opportunity for organisations to target individual services, building a track record for a

life of field offering. Diverless solutions will be of growing interest as offshore wind

developments move further offshore into deeper waters.

Target areas identified during the event included automated inspection, cable scour

inspection, condition monitoring, remote monitoring, increased turbine access and risk

based inspection such as with flexibles and umbilicals.

The event also allowed companies with experience of diversification into the offshore

wind industry to provide feedback on challenges or barriers to entry. These included a

need to prove cost competitiveness or reduction and a proactive, innovative approach

that does not dictate other industry methods to offshore wind.

Several new technologies were acknowledged as having particular merit within the

industry.

Aligning with the growing movement towards automation of industry was the

identification of autonomous underwater and surface vehicles which combined with

remote sensing capabilities could remove the issue of turbine access by automating O&M

activities. Increasing remote sensing and monitoring capabilities would also allow

industry to make repair and maintenance activities more evidence based reducing costs

and downtime.

In electrical infrastructure a need was identified for new wet mateable connectors that

remove existing limitations in capacity to offer efficiency of installation and change out to

future, higher capacity cables.

Numerous sub-structure solutions were put forward including concrete and steel hybrids,

hybrids with other renewable industries and floating structures that require investigation

to perhaps identify cost savings in construction and installation.

Piling noise control and marine mammal detection were the strongest environmental

themes discussed at the event. Existing techniques for marine mammal detection such

as hydrophones and the use of spotters have drawbacks. Spotters are vulnerable to

human error while hydrophones rely on the mammal making a noise to be detected.

Thermal detection is one solution that could be used to detect mammals close to the

surface. Attaching a thermal camera, perhaps powered remotely with solar energy, to a

balloon could give up to a one mile radius of detection. Variable frequency noise

cancellation is a potential alternative to bubble curtains for piling noise reduction with

the possibility of different frequency settings for different mammals.

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Collaborative industry effort was highlighted as being required on a number of fronts.

There is currently a shortage of skilled personnel at 66kV cable capacity. With this

capacity expanding beyond 66kV in the future there needs to be increased focus on the

training and retention of staff, perhaps through a common work force.

The industry as a whole could also benefit from a single entity for the coordination of

standards and lessons learned. Particular lessons could be learned from those industries

with experience in the standardisation and mass production of large structures such as

aerospace. It was also suggested that there may be existing scour monitoring techniques

in industries such as shipping which could be adapted to scour detection for offshore

wind.

Cross operator inspection across different sites could also help to lower costs. Where

neighbouring sites have similar ground conditions there is the opportunity to use a

standardised sub-structure across multiple developments, taking advantage of

economies of scale. Where ground conditions change a standardised structure with a

common interface to a variety of foundation types could also provide cost savings. By

standardising and modularising the design of structures mass production becomes a

possibility. Neighbouring sites could also collaborate on inspection and maintenance

campaigns to share vessel costs.

As more offshore wind farms are commissioned there becomes a need to establish more

cost effective means of transmitting produced electricity back to the grid. One possibility

mooted during the event was to take the concept of pipeline hot tapping and apply this

to offshore wind. Rather than having individual export pipelines for each development

there is a business opportunity similar to that of the Central Area Transmission System

(CATS). Offshore wind farm developments would tie into a single export line to shore via

electrical t-pieces which can be retrofitted. Significant improvements to energy storage

technology will be required as well as development of electrical hot tapping technology to

limit downtime of the export line.

From the ideas generated by the event it is clear that there are significant opportunities

for the UK’s subsea supply chain in the offshore wind industry. With the United Kingdom

having the largest, potential offshore wind market in Europe there is the opportunity to

establish a core capability to meet offshore wind challenges at home as well as in export

markets. Establishing this capability could help to protect the UK’s position as the leading

provider of subsea technological solutions worldwide.

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Ver: 2.0 Subsea Technological Challenges in Offshore Wind – Output from Event of 148


2.6 TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP

Figure 2.1 - Technology Roadmap

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3. BACKGROUND

In late 2015 it was identified by NSRI’s board that there was a need to diversify the

offering of the initiative to other industries. The short term focus of the initiative had

been on the oil and gas industry as this is where the majority of the Subsea UK

membership’s revenue lay. Branching out would reflect the growing diversification taking

place amongst members.

Offshore wind was identified by NSRI’s board as a medium term growth industry for the

subsea industry. As such focus was put into investigating where NSRI could help subsea

companies operating and looking to break into this industry from the start of 2016.

NSRI met with ORE Catapult in March 2016 to discuss ways in which the organisations

could work together for the mutual benefit of their respective industries. NSRI in wanting

to help subsea technologies break into the offshore wind market, with ORE Catapult

looking to tap into the expertise of the Subsea UK membership. Out of this meeting the

subsea technological challenges facing the offshore wind industry subsea were defined.

These formed an “NSRI Matchmaker” database for the offshore wind industry to mirror

NSRI’s offering in oil and gas. It was also agreed that a joint event be held in Aberdeen

in order to communicate these challenges effectively to the subsea industry.

The “NSRI Matchmaker” is an online resource which NSRI uses to marry industry need

with academic capability and supply chain offering. Industry needs are agreed with the

relevant industry bodies and grouped in the online database under agreed “NSRI

Matchmaker” themes. An unbiased appraisal of capability is included with profiles for

each University REF 2014 submission. Companies and centres of excellence in the supply

chain are then free to submit profiles of their offerings and current technology

development activities under the relevant “NSRI Matchmaker” themes. The aim is to

partner end users with technology researchers and developers in order to advance

technology development in the subsea industry.

The structure of the “NSRI Matchmaker” for offshore wind is represented in a mind map

in Figure 3.1 and can be described as below. This is as agreed between NSRI and ORE

Catapult. A full list of NSRI Matchmaker themes is also available in Appendix I: List of

“NSRI Matchmaker” Themes.

Industry Theme e.g. O&M.

o Industry Challenge e.g. Reduce lifecycle costs of O&M activities.

Industry Solution e.g. Remote inspection.

Further discussions have been held between NSRI and the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind

Accelerator (OWA). The OWA is a collaborative research and development (R&D)

programme between the Carbon Trust and nine offshore wind developers (Dong Energy,

E.ON, EnBW, Innogy, Scottish Power Renewables, SSE Renewables, Statkraft, Statoil

and Vattenfall). These discussions centred around how the OWA can use the “NSRI

Matchmaker” for offshore wind as a source of subsea technological expertise to assist

with their innovation projects. This would increase the exposure of subsea companies to

the major players in the offshore wind industry.

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Figure 3.1 - Offshore Wind "NSRI Matchmaker" Mind Map

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4. INTRODUCTION

The Subsea Technological Challenges in Offshore Wind event followed on from the

meeting held with ORE Catapult in March 2016. Out of the event a number of subsea

technological challenges were generated to form an “NSRI Matchmaker” database for

offshore wind mirroring that already on offer for oil and gas. The aim of the event was to

communicate the technological challenges to the subsea industry and to generate a suite

of ideas that could help to solve these challenges and lower the LCOE for offshore wind

farm developments.

The event took the form of a collaborative workshop attended by technical delegates

from across the subsea industry. An overview of NSRI and ORE Catapult’s meeting

provided the context of the event. The technological challenges in the “NSRI

Matchmaker” for offshore wind were described by subject matter experts. Delegates

were then asked to discuss potential solutions to these challenges in groups chaired by

the subject matter expert for each “NSRI Matchmaker” theme.

The purpose of this report is to document the subsea technological challenges and

potential solutions for the offshore wind industry identified during the event. It describes

how these challenges and solutions were captured, categorised and evaluated to produce

a series of recommendations of concepts that could be progressed further. The ideas to

be progressed are summarised in a technology roadmap grouping them into short,

medium and long term developmental activities. It is hoped that this will serve to drive

forward innovation on these technological issues and ultimately deliver advances in

subsea technology which will help to lower the LCOE of offshore wind farm

developments.

05.12.16




5. OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the Subsea Technological Challenges in Offshore Wind event were:

1. To advise the industry on the support available to companies seeking to diversify

their offering into offshore wind from NSRI, ORE Catapult and SE.

2. To highlight high potential areas for diversification into offshore wind.

3. To communicate the subsea technological challenges facing the offshore wind

industry, agreed by NSRI and ORE Catapult, through subject matter experts.

4. To gather the subsea industry to brainstorm ideas around the “NSRI Matchmaker”

themes for offshore wind and the technological challenges presented by the

subject matter experts.

5. To communicate the potential solutions proposed at the event through an output

report, executive summary and technology roadmap.

05.12.16




6. EVENT FORMAT

6.1 PRE-EVENT PLANNING

The structure of the event was agreed between NSRI and ORE Catapult during a meeting

of the two organisations in March 2016. It was proposed that the event take the format

of previous, successful NSRI led events such as the 2015 Hackathons and the Subsea

Storage Workshop from April 2016. Industry experts were identified by NSRI and ORE

Catapult and material developed to assist the brainstorming sessions. Press articles

(reNEWS, Offshore Wind, Energy Voice) were released in the weeks preceding the event

to increase industry awareness and secure a strong attendance.

6.2 EVENT

The full agenda for the event is included in Appendix II: Event Agenda. It was designed

as per pre-event planning agreement in order to meet the event objectives outlined in

section 5. A list of delegates who attended the event is provided in Appendix III:

Delegate List. The presentations from the event are provided in full in the appendices.

They followed the general structure outlined below.

Overview of the event

Jamie McCallum, Project Engineer, NSRI (Appendix IV: Presentations: NSRI)

Help available to companies looking to diversify into offshore wind.

Andrew Tipping, Commercialisation Manager, ORE Catapult (Appendix V: Presentations:

ORE Catapult)

Example of successful diversification through technology development.

Moray Melhuish, Development Director, ROVOP (Appendix VI: Presentations: ROVOP)

Subsea Technological Challenges in Offshore Wind

Operations & Maintenance

Alan Duncan, Senior Associate, BVG Associates (Appendix VII: Presentations: BVG

Associates)

Sub-Structures & Foundations

John Foley, Head of Civil Engineering, Atkins Offshore Wind (Appendix VIII:

Presentations: Atkins Offshore Wind)

Cables & Electrical Infrastructure

Jeremy Featherstone, Product Development Director, JDR Cable Systems (Appendix IX:

Presentations: JDR Cables)

Environmental Conditions

Zoe Crutchfield, Marine Environment Lead, Arup (Appendix X: Presentations: Arup)

Installation

Alan MacLeay, Engineering Director, Seaway Heavy Lift (Appendix XI: Presentations:

Seaway Heavy Lift)

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NSRI provided an introduction to the event, their organisation and the format of the day.

ORE Catapult communicated the assistance available from their organisation, and others,

to subsea companies looking to diversify their offering to the offshore wind industry.

ROVOP provided an example of successful diversification into offshore wind through

technology development. The “NSRI Matchmaker” themes for offshore wind were

covered by subject matter experts from BVG Associates, Atkins Offshore Wind, JDR

Cables, Arup and Seaway Heavy Lift. The experts outlined the current state of the art in

offshore wind and their views on the subsea technological challenges that need to be

overcome to lower the LCOE of offshore wind farm developments.

Delegates were then split into brainstorming groups aligned to their individual expertise.

Delegates had the opportunity to participate in three different groups across the

afternoon. Each group was to cover one of the “NSRI Matchmaker” themes for offshore

wind, with the groups led by the relevant subject matter expert from the morning

presentations. A pre-populated list of the “NSRI Matchmaker” themes for offshore wind

was made available to the delegates to serve as discussion points alongside the earlier

presentations. The pre-populated list is provided in Appendix I: List of “NSRI

Matchmaker” Themes.

Scribes were assigned to each group in order to capture the ideas generated on idea

cards designed for the event. As part of the exercise delegates were asked to consider

which issues and ideas had merit. These were marked with stickers on their cards and

were captured in order to identify which ideas industry identifies as best to prioritise.

6.3 POST-EVENT ACTIVITIES

The completed idea cards from the scribes were gathered and transcribed by NSRI. This

allowed the list of ideas to be easily categorised into adopt, adapt, develop categories. A

full list of the transcribed ideas can be found in Appendix XII: List of Ideas Generated.

The list of ideas was reviewed thoroughly by NSRI in order to check for duplication and

any erroneous information. NSRI did not seek to intervene or change the voice or tone of

the proposed solutions in any way.

Where there were queries with the content of any of the scribed ideas these were

followed up with the subject matter experts who chaired each table.

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7. RESULTS

7.1 GENERAL REMARKS

Over 50 delegates took part in the Subsea Technological Challenges in Offshore Wind

event. They represented a broad cross-section of the subsea industry from installation

contractors, engineering consultancies and equipment manufacturers. Some had

previous experience in the offshore wind industry while others were active in other

subsea industries and provided an “outside-in” perspective. All contributed greatly to the

afternoon discussions to generate many potential ideas.

In reviewing the notes from the table scribes it was clear that there was a mix of

different content in various contexts. This was to be expected when capturing

conversations occurring in a group, brainstorming environment. In transcribing the notes

were therefore separated into “issues” and “ideas”.

The list of ideas were further categorised into the following classifications:

Adopt: A focus area which can bring benefits in the short term through immediate

implementation.

Adapt: Less mature concepts which require further work to mature to a level

where they can be adopted.

Develop: Immature technologies and concepts that need significant work prior to

introduction in the longer term.

Collaborate: Industry behaviours that could be promoted to enable the

advancement of technology or the lowering of the LCOE of offshore wind farm

developments.

Some proposals from the sessions may appear in more than one category if required.

The issues and ideas from the full transcribed list in Appendix XII: List of Ideas

Generated and are listed again, sorted under the headings: issues, adopt, adapt, develop

and collaborate in Appendix XIII: List of Ideas Generated - Sorted.

Those ideas and issues which were considered most pressing were marked with a sticker

and are reported within this section.

7.2 ISSUES

The issues identified as needing to be addressed by industry were primarily:

Limitations of wet mateable connectors.

Over design of cable protection at the interface with the subsea structure.

A shortage of skilled personnel as capacity increases to 66kV and beyond.

Difficulty of getting ideas into designs at early stages of Engineering,

Procurement, Installation and Commissioning (EPIC) contracts.

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7.3 ADOPT

Ideas put forward that could immediately have an effect on the LCOE of offshore wind

developments were identified as:

A standardised approach to the design of cables and electrical infrastructure.

Thermal detection of close to surface marine mammals.

A risk based, data driven inspection approach as with flexibles and umbilicals.

Cross operator inspection and maintenance campaigns.

Vessel and campaign “clubs” making use of available IRM vessels.

Designing intervention costs into the developments life cycle cost.

Assembly of one body to coordinate industry standards and best practice.

Striking a balance between scheduled inspection and reactive maintenance

through use of call off and frame agreements.

A market opportunity for a life of field operations and maintenance contractor.

Using over-engineered, standardised, sub-structure designs across a

development as opposed to individual, bespoke designs.

Developing an industry forum on standards and lessons learned, adopting codes

which already exist rather than creating new ones.

Exploiting the O&M gap that exists once wind farms are out of warranty.

7.4 ADAPT

Ideas put forward that need further work to have an effect on the LCOE of offshore wind

developments were identified as:

Applying the concept of hot tapping to export cables allowing future

developments to tie in to main export cables through electrical t-pieces.

Thermal detection of close to surface marine mammals.

Dual axis sonar as used in the detection of quayside scour.

A risk based, data driven inspection approach as with flexibles and umbilicals.

The creation of an evidence based standard for cable protection systems along

the lines of the Pipeline Integrity Management System (PIMS) standard.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) for autonomous cable detection,

monitoring, inspection and repair.

Use of hybrid, concrete and floating structures that can be installed without the

use of heavy lift vessels.

Learning from other industries with experience in the mass production of very

large structures such as aircraft and nuclear reactors.

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7.5 DEVELOP

Ideas put forward that need significant work to have an effect on the LCOE of offshore

wind developments were identified as:

New wet mateable connectors which provide an economic solution and more

efficient installation and change out whilst dealing with increasing capacities.

A structure for performing inspection and maintenance that ensures the future

integrity of cables and facilities end of life and replacement planning.

Forced ventilation for the cable routing in air on the subsea structure to allow

cooling of cable hot spots.

Variable frequency noise cancellation technology to cancel piling noise.

Remote strain and temperature sensing, acoustics and communications for

preventative maintenance of offshore and floating wind structures.

Development of remote sensing for scour detection including lights, cameras and

batteries.

Modularise parts of the sub-structure such as those that do not change with size.

Standardise the sub-structure to fit adaptable foundations depending on ground

conditions.

Standardisation and mass production of secondary and tertiary steel structures as

a starting point to work towards enabling the whole structure.

Construction in a modular fashion with continual output to use vessel time

efficiently where offload from site may cause hold ups.

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7.6 COLLABORATE

Ideas put forward that address behavioural issues of the industry that are not so much

technical solutions, yet present either barriers or enablers to the lowering of the LCOE of

offshore wind developments were identified as:

A standardised approach to the design of cables and electrical infrastructure.

A shortage of skilled personnel capacity increases to 66kV and beyond.

Applying the concept of pipeline hot tapping to export cables allowing future

developments to tie in to main export lines through electrical t-pieces which can

be retrofitted.

Cross operator inspection and maintenance campaigns.

Vessel and campaign “clubs” making use of available IRM vessels.

Assembly of one body to coordinate industry standards and best practice.

Developing an industry forum on standards and lessons learned, adopting codes

which already exist rather than creating new ones.

Cooperation of different operators on the design of structures across sites with

similar ground conditions.

Difficulty of getting ideas into designs at early stages of EPIC contracts.

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8. TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP

A summary of the key technology challenges are depicted in a technology roadmap for

the subsea offshore wind industry. The roadmap is presented in Figure 8.1.

The applicability of the roadmap to specific points in the lifecycle is illustrated with the

timescales inferred from the adopt, adapt, develop, collaborate classifications in section

7.1.

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Figure 8.1 - Technology Roadmap

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9. CONCLUSIVE REMARKS

The objectives described in section 5 have been met.

NSRI and ORE Catapult presented the support available to industry at the event with

BGV Associates highlighting high potential areas for diversification into offshore wind.

More on these high potential areas can be found in Scottish Enterprise’s “Seize the

Opportunity” guide for offshore wind.

The subsea technological challenges facing the offshore wind industry were presented to

event attendees by industry subject matter experts from BVG Associates, Arup, Atkins

Offshore Wind, JDR Cables and Seaway Heavy Lift. Brainstorming sessions around these

challenges identified a number of issues and potential solutions. These are

communicated in this report and the attached technology roadmap.

O&M – in particular IRM activities – has been identified in industry studies as the highest

potential area for diversification of existing UK industry capability into offshore wind.

40% of the typical lifecycle costs of offshore wind farm developments come from O&M

requirements. Based on UK Government projections for offshore wind deployment the

O&M costs for more than 5,500 turbines could be worth £2billion per annum by 2025.

Given the existing IRM capability in the UK subsea industry this is a significant

opportunity for organisations to target individual services, building a track record for a

life of field offering. Diverless solutions will be of growing interest as offshore wind

developments move further offshore into deeper waters.

Target areas identified during the event included automated inspection, cable scour

inspection, condition monitoring, remote monitoring, increased turbine access and risk

based inspection such as with flexibles and umbilicals.

The event also allowed companies with experience of diversification into the offshore

wind industry to provide feedback on challenges or barriers to entry. These included a

need to prove cost competitiveness or reduction and a proactive, innovative approach

that does not dictate other industry methods to offshore wind.

Several new technologies were acknowledged as having particular merit within the

industry.

Aligning with the growing movement towards automation of industry was the

identification of autonomous underwater and surface vehicles which combined with

remote sensing capabilities could remove the issue of turbine access by automating O&M

activities. Increasing remote sensing and monitoring capabilities would also allow

industry to make repair and maintenance activities more evidence based reducing costs

and downtime.

In electrical infrastructure a need was identified for new wet mateable connectors that

remove existing limitations in capacity to offer efficiency of installation and change out to

future, higher capacity cables.

Numerous sub-structure solutions were put forward including concrete and steel hybrids,

hybrids with other renewable industries and floating structures that require investigation

to perhaps identify cost savings in construction and installation.

https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/knowledge-hub/articles/guide/seize-the-opportunity-offshore-wind

https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/knowledge-hub/articles/guide/seize-the-opportunity-offshore-wind

05.12.16




Piling noise control and marine mammal detection were the strongest environmental

themes discussed at the event. Existing techniques for marine mammal detection such

as hydrophones and the use of spotters have drawbacks. Spotters are vulnerable to

human error while hydrophones rely on the mammal making a noise to be detected.

Thermal detection is one solution that could be used to detect mammals close to the

surface. Attaching a thermal camera, perhaps powered remotely with solar energy, to a

balloon could give up to a one mile radius of detection. Variable frequency noise

cancellation is a potential alternative to bubble curtains for piling noise reduction with

the possibility of different frequency settings for different mammals.

Collaborative industry effort was highlighted as being required on a number of fronts.

There is currently a shortage of skilled personnel at 66kV cable capacity. With this

capacity expanding beyond 66kV in the future there needs to be increased focus on the

training and retention of staff, perhaps through a common work force.

The industry as a whole could also benefit from a single entity for the coordination of

standards and lessons learned. Particular lessons could be learned from those industries

with experience in the standardisation and mass production of large structures such as

aerospace. It was also suggested that there may be existing scour monitoring techniques

in industries such as shipping which could be adapted to scour detection for offshore

wind.

Cross operator inspection across different sites could also help to lower costs. Where

neighbouring sites have similar ground conditions there is the opportunity to use a

standardised sub-structure across multiple developments, taking advantage of

economies of scale. Where ground conditions change a standardised structure with a

common interface to a variety of foundation types could also provide cost savings. By

standardising and modularising the design of structures mass production becomes a

possibility. Neighbouring sites could also collaborate on inspection and maintenance

campaigns to share vessel costs.

As more offshore wind farms are commissioned there becomes a need to establish more

cost effective means of transmitting produced electricity back to the grid. One possibility

mooted during the event was to take the concept of pipeline hot tapping and apply this

to offshore wind. Rather than having individual export pipelines for each development

there is a business opportunity similar to that of CATS. Offshore wind farm developments

would tie into a single export line to shore via electrical t-pieces which can be retrofitted.

Significant improvements to energy storage technology will be required as well as

development of electrical hot tapping technology to limit downtime of the export line.

From the ideas generated by the event it is clear that there are significant opportunities

for the UK’s subsea supply chain in the offshore wind industry. With the United Kingdom

having the largest, potential offshore wind market in Europe there is the opportunity to

establish a core capability to meet offshore wind challenges at home as well as in export

markets. Establishing this capability could help to protect the UK’s position as the leading

provider of subsea technological solutions worldwide.

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APPENDIX I: LIST OF “NSRI MATCHMAKER” THEMES

Workshop Discussion Guide

The “NSRI Matchmaker” themes should be used alongside the presentation content from

the morning session to guide discussion around potential solutions the subsea industry

should look to develop. Each session will last 30 minutes. At the end of each session

tables should sticker the ideas they think are best.


Improve cable protection to reduce number of insurance claims.

• Cable Protection

• Ploughing

Increase capacity.

• Electrical Architecture

• Export Cables

• Grid Compliance

• Higher Voltage DC Cables

• HVAC Booster Stations

• Intra-Array Cables


Enhanced surveying and modelling of environment.

• Bathymetry Surveying

• Geophysical Surveying

• Geotechnical Surveying

• Wake Effects Modelling

Improve available data to support design and operation.

• Environmental Characteristics

• Metocean Conditions & Forecasts

• Wave Height Measurement & Forecasts

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Installation

Improve cable installation techniques.

• Cable Handling

• Cable Installation Vessels

Improve support structure installation.

• Floating Build

• Multi-Piling Techniques

• Piling Noise Control

• Reduce Offshore Commissioning

• Reduce Vessel Requirements

• Rock Pile-Driving

Increase access windows.

• Decision Making Tools - Installation

• Reduce Weather Sensitivity

• Specialist Vessels

• Vessel Management & Planning - Installation


Increase access windows.

• Decision Making Tools - O&M

• Satellite Applications

• Turbine Access

• Vessel Management & Planning - O&M

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Reduce lifecycle costs of O&M activities through innovative inspection and repair

techniques.

• Automated Inspection

• Cable Jointing Repair

• Cable Scouring Inspection

• Condition Based Monitoring

• Drone Inspection

• Remote Cable Monitoring / Inspection

• Subsea Inspection


Methods to facilitate production of large numbers of structures.

• Automation

• Float Out of Structures

• Mass Manufacturing Techniques

• Standardisation

New, innovative designs.

• Alternative Designs

• Deeper Waters

• Reduce Mass per MW

Validation of designs.

• Validation

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APPENDIX II: EVENT AGENDA

09:00

Registration

09:30

Welcome

Gordon Drummond, Project Director, NSRI

09:35

Introduction, Latest NSRI News & Format of the Day

Jamie McCallum, Project Engineer, NSRI

09:50

Subsea Innovation Challenges in Offshore Wind

Andrew Tipping, Commercialisation Manager, ORE Catapult

10:10

Challenges in Diversification: ROVs across Oil & Gas and Offshore Wind

Moray Melhuish, Development Director, ROVOP

10:30

Coffee Break

10:45

Oil and Gas Diversification: High Potential Areas & Key Challenges (Operations

& Maintenance)

Alan Duncan, Senior Associate, BVG Associates

11:05

Foundations and Substructures

John Foley, Head of Civil Engineering, Atkins Offshore Wind

11:25

Inter Array Cable Technology Development

Jeremy Featherstone, Product Development Director, JDR Cable Systems

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11:45

The Consenting Process, Environmental Challenges and Stakeholder Concerns

Zoe Crutchfield, Marine Environment Lead, Arup

12:05

Installation

Alan MacLeay, Engineering Director, Seaway Heavy Lift

12:30

Lunch

13:30

Workshop One: The Way Forward

Delegates break into table sessions on the “NSRI Matchmaker” themes for offshore wind

to discuss potential solutions to the challenges presented during the event.



Installation



14:00

Workshop Two: The Way Forward





Installation



14:30

Coffee Break

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15:00

Workshop Three: The Way Forward





Installation



15:30

Meeting Round Up and Next Steps

Jamie McCallum, Project Engineer, NSRI

16:00

Close

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APPENDIX III: DELEGATE LIST

Delegate Name Job Title Company

Gilles Gardner Technical Manager 2H Offshore Engineering Ltd

Joe Bowes Global Sales Manager Advanced Insulation

Zoe Crutchfield Marine Environment Lead Arup

John Foley Head of Civil Engineering Atkins Offshore Wind

Bob Crowe Client Account Manager Bibby Offshore

Chris Milner Regional Manager BPP-TECH

Alan Duncan Senior Associate BVG Associates

Alexander MacLeod Project Services Manager Cambla Ltd

Campbell Cartney Managing Director Camserv Ltd

Sam Taylor Technical Sales Manager DeepOcean

Jon Bodicoat Associate Director Dominion Gas / Argon Isotank

Sarah Brownie Business Development Ecosse Subsea

Daniel Evans Subsea Engineer Evaneering Limited

Nigel Robinson Principal Consultant Houlder

Andrew Boddice UK Area Sales Manager Imenco UK Ltd

Michael Kinsella Subsea Project Engineer Irish Sea Contractors

Jeremy Featherstone Product Development Director JDR Cable Systems

Jon Davison Business Development Manager Jee Limited

Mike McDonald Testing Sales Coordinator JFD

Mark Bruce Business Manager Kongsberg Maritime

Dean Jennings Business Manager OPU Kongsberg Maritime

Ian Florence Subsea Applications Engineer Kongsberg Maritime

Andrew Naylor Sales & Applications Support Kongsberg Maritime

Dave Hamill Business Development Manager N-Sea

Dr. Gordon Drummond Project Director NSRI

Jamie McCallum Project Engineer NSRI

Christer Fjellroth Project Engineer NSRI

Andrew Tipping Commercialisation Manager Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult

Callum Norrie ESA IAP Offshore Energy Ambassador Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult

Margaret McMillan Account Manager Proserv UK Ltd

Tim Eley Business Developer OSBIT Ltd

Toby Bailey Business Development Director Red Marine Limited

Ben Knight Managing Director Rig Control Products

Alessandro Bedin Managing Director RIGOCAL Engineering

Laura Wood Business Development Manager Robert Gordon University

Dr. Donald Stewart Engineering Director Rotech Subsea Ltd

Martin Graham Operations Director Rotech Subsea Ltd

Moray Melhuish Development Director ROVOP

Des Hatfield Key Account Director Royal IHC

Ronald Whyte Managing Director Schoolhill Hyd Engineering Co Ltd

Chris Bryceland Subsea Opportunity Manager Scottish Enterprise

Alistair Punt Sales and Marketing Coordinator Scour Prevention Systems

Alan MacLeay Engineering Director Seaway Heavy Lift

Alan MacDonald Sales Manager Sonardyne International Ltd

Iain Chirnside Senior Development Engineer Steer Energy

Steven Stocks Business Development Manager Stork Technical Services Ltd

Trish Banks Operations Manager Subsea UK

Neil Gordon CEO Subsea UK

David Wilson Knowledge and Communications Manager The Oil and Gas Technology Centre

Christopher Pearson Solutions Centre Manager - Small Pools The Oil and Gas Technology Centre

Sebastian Plant Technical Support Engineer TSC Inspection Systems

Eric Kiltie UK Engineering Manager UniversalPegasus International

Barry Thomas European Director Valley Forge & Bolt

Keith Anderson Subsea Manager - Engineering Wood Group

John Butler Business Acquisitions Manager Wood Group

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APPENDIX IV: PRESENTATIONS: NSRI

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APPENDIX V: PRESENTATIONS: ORE CATAPULT

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APPENDIX VI: PRESENTATIONS: ROVOP

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APPENDIX VII: PRESENTATIONS: BVG ASSOCIATES

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APPENDIX VIII: PRESENTATIONS: ATKINS OFFSHORE WIND

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APPENDIX IX: PRESENTATIONS: JDR CABLES

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APPENDIX X: PRESENTATIONS: ARUP

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APPENDIX XI: PRESENTATIONS: SEAWAY HEAVY LIFT

[HOLD]

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APPENDIX XII: LIST OF IDEAS GENERATED

CABLES & ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Theme Table: Cables & Electrical Infrastructure

Chairperson: Jeremy Featherstone, Product Development Director, JDR Cables

Idea TITLE: Limits for Wet Mateable Connectors

Idea Detail: There are limits for wet mateable connectors.

Drive technology for wet mateable connectors.

Find an economic solution for wet mateable connectors.

Efficiency of installation and change out.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Standardisation

Idea Detail: What is the DONG ethos and how can it be replicated across the supply

chain and other stakeholders?

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Future Proofing

Idea Detail: Structure for performing inspection and maintenance activities to ensure

the future integrity of the cables and to facilitate end of life and replacement planning.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Cable Scour / Protection

Idea Detail: Is cable protection needed at the interface with the subsea structure? Does

this amount to overdesign?

Sticker: Yes

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Idea TITLE: Government Help for High Voltage Transmission

Idea Detail: There is currently a shortage of skilled personnel for 33kV termination. As

this increases to 66kV and beyond how do we ensure the competencies are increased

and maintained? Through a common skilled work force?

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Cable Cooling

Idea Detail: Forced ventilation for the cable routing in air on the subsea structure to

allow cooling of the cable hot spots.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: “Hot Tap” Tie In Offshore Wind Farms

Idea Detail: What is the opportunity for an electrical tie in to an export cable to allow

subscribers access to the grid through a common export cable? One example could be

through an electrical t-piece. This would be in a similar manner to oil and gas assets tied

in to a main trunk line such as Forties or CATS.

Sticker: Yes

05.12.16




ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

Theme Table: Environmental Conditions

Chairperson: Zoe Crutchfield, Marine Environment Lead, Arup

Idea TITLE: Thermal Detection for “Close to Surface” Marine Mammals

Idea Detail: Use a thermal camera on a balloon for detecting close to surface marine

mammals.

One mile radius of detection.

Questions over the cost advantages of this method.

Remote power for the camera could be available through solar energy.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Dual Axis Sonar – Enhanced Scour Monitoring

Idea Detail: Used to monitor quayside scour from bow thrusters in major ports. Could

this be adapted for offshore wind scour monitoring?

Could be deployed and left – single vessel requirement.

Left on the turbine – eliminate boat and technician.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Reducing Piling Noise

Idea Detail: There is an issue with piling noise. Use unexploded ordinance (UXO)

explosion control materials around the pile to reduce propagation of piling noise. This is

cheaper than a bubble curtain.

Sticker: No

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Idea TITLE: AUV Subsea Survey – Routine Survey – Increase Speed / Reduce Vessel

Idea Detail:

Transponders – relay information to an acoustic hub.

Move beyond a snapshot of information.

Real time information – logging data on the seabed.

Transponders used to help navigate AUVs along a cable route.

Multibeam survey for scouring.

Transponders installed on a permanent basis for ongoing surveying.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Piling Operations – Marine Mammal Detection

Idea Detail: Currently spending millions on “spotters” for monitoring of marine

mammals for piling operations.

Use acoustic deterrents? Fish finder technology is not suitable as it is not passive.

An underwater hydrophone could be used as it is a passive system. Listen to

marine mammals entering a site.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) / AUV Carrying Out Marine Mammal

Survey

Idea Detail: Unmanned surface vehicle carrying out survey prior to start of piling

operations utilising acoustic detection.

Sticker: No

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Idea TITLE: Marine Mammal Detection during Piling Operations

Idea Detail: Hydrophones and spotters are the current methods used although neither

is perfect. For hydrophones if a marine mammal makes no noise it won’t be detected.

Spotters are vulnerable to human error. Potential solution is to cancel the noise of piling

operations by identifying the frequency and cancelling or changing it. Concept is similar

to noise cancelling headphones with variable frequency noise cancelling technology with

different frequency settings for different mammals.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Deck Motion Monitor to Improve Access / Increase Operational Window

Idea Detail:

Real time measurement of wave heights going into a “line” traffic light system on

board vessels to confirm access risk. Wi-Fi system already exists.

Helicopter launch decision making tool could be used. Decision is made before the

helicopter leaves and this could be adapted.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Virtual Automatic Identification System (AIS) beacon – Vessel Warning

System for Anchor Drags

Idea Detail: Vesper Marine has a solution. Every large vessel has the system in

operation. This could be used for protecting cables and subsea assets against anchor

drags from vessels or from jack ups sitting on cables.

Sticker: No

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OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

Theme Table: Operations & Maintenance

Chairperson: Alan Duncan, Senior Associate, BVG Associates

Idea TITLE: Floating Wind Remote Sensing

Idea Detail: Remote sensing of strain and temperature, acoustic and communications

for preventative maintenance.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Risk Based Inspection ala Flexibles / Umbilicals

Idea Detail: Look to replicate the SMART, data driven, risk based inspection approach

used for flexible and umbilicals in oil and gas.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: AUVs

Idea Detail: Use AUVs for autonomous inspection and monitoring of cables. Subsea 7

and Modus are currently working on AUV technology for inspection. Lobster potting?

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Cross Operator Campaigns

Idea Detail: Insurers could look to pull together opportunities for campaigns across

different operators assets to take advantage of similarities across many maintenance

and inspection campaigns.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Vessel Clubs

Idea Detail: Adapt oil and gas vessels for IRM and hire out as part of “vessel clubs”

Sticker: Yes

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Idea TITLE: Sonar for Low Visibility

Idea Detail: High resolution sonar to be used in areas of low visibility due to turbidity.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Weather Statistics for Optimisation

Idea Detail: Use statistics for weather through simulations such as Monte Carlo to

optimise logistics and maintenance schedules.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Design in Intervention

Idea Detail: Design in intervention to the total life cycle cost of the project considering

the CAPEX / OPEX split.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Remote / Diverless Sensing

Idea Detail: Should be working towards diverless sensing for round three of licensing as

water depths move beyond 30m. Remote sensing for scour with camera, lights and

battery would play a role in this move.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: PIMS Type Standard for Cables

Idea Detail: Have common, evidence based standard, similar to PIMS for pipelines, for

cables.

Sticker: Yes

05.12.16






Idea TITLE: Coordination of Standards

Idea Detail: There should be a single body to coordinate standards and best practices

across the industry. There seems to be lack of a single entity whilst multiple bodies

already exist.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Oil & Gas Safety Culture

Idea Detail: Transfer oil and gas safety culture to offshore wind industry.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Bolt Tension Monitoring

Idea Detail: Condition monitoring of bolt tensions

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Offshore Accommodation Opportunity

Idea Detail: There is a market opportunity for offshore accommodation modules as

offshore wind farms go into deeper waters and further offshore.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Proactive vs. Reactive

Idea Detail: Scheduled inspection vs. reactive maintenance. Call off agreements, frame

agreements and campaign diving services frame agreement.

Sticker: Yes

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Idea TITLE: Coatings

Idea Detail: Coating breakdown is a big issue at component level.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Scour

Idea Detail: Design for scour on day one and forget about it. Armour at the bend?

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Life of Field Contractor Opportunity

Idea Detail: There is a market opportunity for life of field contractors with a total life

cycle cost modelling system.

Sticker: No

05.12.16




SUB-STRUCTURES & FOUNDATIONS

Theme Table: Sub-Structures & Foundations

Chairperson: John Foley, Head of Civil Engineering, Atkins Offshore Wind

Idea TITLE: Tow vs. Heavy Lift

Idea Detail:

Tow out and ballast of structure vs. heavy lifting into place.

Hybrid / concrete / floating structures have been installed without heavy lift

vessels offshore Denmark.

Consider what would be done if heavy lift vessels were unavailable and potentially

change approach to reduce vessel cost.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: One Size Fits All vs. Bespoke Design

Idea Detail: Is there a requirement for all sub-structure designs to be bespoke to each

development and turbine? Would a standardised, over-engineered design offer a cheaper

alternative to bespoke designs with the time saved?

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Modularised Design

Idea Detail: Modularise particular parts of the structure i.e. those that do not change

with water depth or standardise the structure but have a different foundation depending

on ground conditions.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Steel Parts Standardisation

Idea Detail: While it may be difficult to standardise the entire structure, secondary and

tertiary steel pieces could be standardised and mass produced as a starting point for

savings.

Sticker: Yes

05.12.16






Idea TITLE: Other Industries

Idea Detail: Look at other industries for approaches to standardisation / mass

production of large designs such as nuclear reactors and aeroplanes.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Split Jacket with Offshore Connection

Idea Detail: Approach in offshore wind industry in the USA has been to split the jacket

into parts and make the connections offshore in order to use smaller vessels.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Industry Forum on Standards

Idea Detail: Get an industry forum together to develop standards / recommended

practices to help standardisation and validation of design. This could include adaptation

of codes written for oil and gas industry such as for grouted connections and act as a

forum for lessons learned.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Compliant Structure

Idea Detail: A compliant structure which allows some flexibility such as a floating

structure would have could reduce the steel requirements of the structure through the

removal of some loading. This would depend on the effect on the output of the turbine.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Suction Buckets

Idea Detail: Have tight working tolerances

Sticker: No

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Idea TITLE: Reuse Decommissioned Assets

Idea Detail: Place turbines and substations on top of decommissioned semi-

submersibles and jackets.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: High Rise Building

Idea Detail: Build structures like a high rise building and float out e.g. Nufolab /

Hibernia.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Operator Cooperation across Sites

Idea Detail: Cooperation between different operators across neighbouring sites could

see the same or similar design of structure rolled out across multiple sites, cutting down

on costs e.g. Beatrice and Moray.

Sticker: Yes



Idea TITLE: Floating Wind Redundancies

Idea Detail: Concern around the lack of redundancy in some offshore wind designs such

as Hywind which only has three, individual mooring lines to keep the structures in

position.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Steel Defects

Idea Detail: Steel for the sub-structures comes from all over the World. How can these

be inspected for defects and to have thorough quality assurance?

Sticker: No

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Idea TITLE: Hook Height Limit

Idea Detail: Hook heights currently limit the height of structure that installation vessels

can currently install to 45m. Multiple tow outs?

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Steel / Concrete Hybrids

Idea Detail: Mix the steel and concrete industries which is already prevalent in the

construction industry. It would require the look ahead of multiple upcoming

developments to justify the large start-up costs that would be incurred. There hasn’t

been a concrete solution in five years with monopoles and jackets always being favoured

over hybrids or gravity bases.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Scottish Ground Conditions

Idea Detail: Scotland is at a disadvantage for standardisation due to the variety of

ground conditions that exist off its coastline compared with the rest of North Europe.

Sticker: No

05.12.16




INSTALLATION

Theme Table: Installation

Chairperson: Alan MacLeay, Engineering Director, Seaway Heavy Lift

Idea TITLE: Piling

Idea Detail:

Piling can be continuous for six months and the size of hammers being used is

increasing meaning there is more energy in water and more noise to get rid of.

Bubble curtains, glazing systems, hydrosound dampers or cofferdams are

potential solutions for reducing noise although the latter two are only approved in

Germany.

Costs can be up to two or three million per pile so it’s therefore expensive to trial

new solutions.

Alternatives include suction piles – which can be limited in some locations –Dutch

water hammer, vibrohammer or drilling of piles.

Impact hammers are always required for the last 5m.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Specialist Vessels

Idea Detail:

Improved weather sensitivity is something clients want to avoid work in the

winter.

Production line mentality could speed up installation.

Aspects are done offshore that could be done onshore.

Issue with specialist vessels is that vessels need to be able to work year round

and therefore be cross industry. If a specialist vessel can install more in less time

then there could be a business case.

"Magazine" style installation?

Just in time operations – logistical and scheduling improvements.

Sticker: No

05.12.16






Idea TITLE: Vessel Types

Idea Detail:

When is heavy lift vessel required as opposed to tugs and barges? What is

required and when?

Different types of boats available include cable lay, heavy lift, IRM and diving

support vessels (DSV).

Having crew onsite saves two hour transfer vessel.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Year Round Operations

Idea Detail: Joined up industry thinking required to get year round operations. This is

principally a contractor issue in confirming who is actually in charge of what?

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Monopile Pull-In

Idea Detail: Connector reliability is poor.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) Friendly Installation

Idea Detail: Structures are currently poorly designed for ROV use meaning ROVs get

trapped during installations due to things like snag paths. Education of ROVs for

Engineers required including simulations and sense checks from senior ROV pilots.

Sticker: No

05.12.16






Idea TITLE: Cable Installation

Idea Detail:

Currently as efficient as it gets although route optimisation could offer further

savings.

Cost of wet connectors could be brought down through increase in volume.

Pre-trenching ahead of installation.

HVDC cables.

Strategically placed vessels to repair cables in North Sea.

Specific gravity of Ally cable.

Improvements in cable installations now mean two cables a day are possible

going from a 36 hour process to a 6 hour process. Take focus off speed of

installation.

Freespan - strain - is the weak link at the limit of speed.

Cables fail during warranty period.

What changes failure rate?

Thermal fatigue of cable.

No check and balance during installation.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: EPIC Contracts

Idea Detail: In EPIC contract route getting ideas into design early can be the key to

cost savings. Many of the EPIC contractors are Dutch and Belgian and are starting to

take stakes in windfarms. O&M gap once wind farms are out of warranty in this

contracting set up.

Sticker: No

05.12.16






Idea TITLE: Scheduling

Idea Detail: There can be complacency when repeating operations with the times crew

are working making fatigue a factor - creates risk through cost reduction. Projects chase

feed-in tariff which creates production schedule pressure. The industry is seasonal which

impacts on schedules. Increased volume of projects would bring costs down. Developers

need to allow installation year round to increase the installation schedule with installer

taking on weather risk.

Sticker: No



Idea TITLE: Planning

Idea Detail:

Plan for summer lay.

Tranching - beginning of year not ideal.

Schedule information for simultaneous operations (SIMOPS) analysis.

Wrong people currently manage offshore installation which requires right contact

with the client.

Current is big problem.

Two season project.

Active heave compensation.

Top spec kit with engineering support. Need to educate customer on benefits and

demonstrate value proposition.

Involve whole supply chain earlier including installation contractors and small and

medium enterprises (SMEs), potentially in the front end engineering design

(FEED) process.

Contract issues.

Sticker: No

05.12.16






Idea TITLE: Mitigate Installation Risk

Idea Detail:

Plough falling over during trenching.

Risk mitigation for marine warranty surveyor.

Pre-cut trenching - seabed dependant - lay cable after.

One tool across one site - doesn't work.

Lack of soil investigation.

Tolerance of risk.

Procedural competence.

Sticker: No

05.12.16




APPENDIX XIII: LIST OF IDEAS GENERATED - SORTED

ISSUES

Theme Idea Sticker?

Cables & Electrical Infrastructure There are limits for wet mateable connectors.

Yes

Cables & Electrical Infrastructure Is cable protection needed at the interface with the subsea structure or is this over design?

Yes

Cables & Electrical Infrastructure Shortage of skilled personnel with capacity increasing to 66kV and beyond.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Coating breakdown. No

Sub-Structures & Foundations Suction buckets tight tolerance. No

Sub-Structures & Foundations Lack of redundancy in some floating wind turbine structures e.g. Hywind moorings.

No

Sub-Structures & Foundations Inspection for defects and quality assurance of steel coming from all over the world.

No

Sub-Structures & Foundations Hook heights currently limit installation vessels to 45m.

No

Sub-Structures & Foundations Scotland is at a disadvantage compared with North Europe due to varying ground conditions.

No

Installation Connector reliability for monopile pull-in is poor.

No

Installation Getting ideas into designs early in EPIC contracts.

Yes

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ADOPT

Theme Idea Sticker?

Cables & Electrical Infrastructure Standardisation of approach across industry e.g. DONG ethos.

Yes

Environmental Conditions Thermal detection of close to surface marine mammals.

Yes

Environmental Conditions AUVs for subsea surveying of cables using permanently installed transponders for guidance.

No

Environmental Conditions Underwater hydrophone as a passive system for detecting marine mammals during piling operations as a replacement for spotters.

No

Environmental Conditions Unmanned surface vessels with acoustic detection for marine mammal surveys prior to commencing piling operations.

No

Environmental Conditions Helicopter launch decision making tool or on board traffic light system to confirm site access risk.

No

Environmental Conditions Vespa Marine vessel warning system for protecting cables from anchor drags and jack ups sitting on them.

No

Operations & Maintenance Risk based inspection approach that is data driven ala approach to flexibles and umbilicals in oil and gas.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Cross operator inspection and maintenance campaigns.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Vessel and campaign clubs making use of oil and gas IRM vessels.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Monte Carlo simulations of weather statistics to optimise logistics and schedules.

No

Operations & Maintenance Design in intervention into life cycle costs.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Assemble one body to coordinate industry standards and best practices.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Transfer strong safety track record and culture from oil and gas.

No

Operations & Maintenance Get the balance between scheduled inspection and reactive maintenance with call off agreements and frame agreements.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Design for scour at outset. No

Operations & Maintenance Market opportunity for life of field operations & maintenance contractor.

Yes

Sub-Structures & Foundations Use of standardised, over-engineered design over individual, bespoke designs.

Yes

Sub-Structures & Foundations Offshore wind USA approach of split jacket with offshore connections.

No

Sub-Structures & Foundations Develop an industry forum on standards and lessons learned, adopting codes which already exist.

Yes

Installation Various piling solutions to adopt including bubble curtains, glazing system, hydrosound damper, cofferdam, Dutch water hammer and vibrohammer.

No

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Installation Having crews onsite to save transfer vessel. Only use heavy lift vessels where required.

No

Installation Bring down cost of wet connectors through volume. Strategically place vessels to repair cables in the North Sea.

No

Installation O&M gap once wind farms are out of warranty. Opportunity for UK IRM companies.

Yes

Installation Allow year round installation. No

Installation Offshore installation needs to be managed by the right people with right contact with client.

No

Installation More soil investigation required to improve trenching to mitigate risk of plough falling over during trenching.

No

Installation Take into account ROVs in design of structures.

No

05.12.16




ADAPT

Theme Idea Sticker?

Cables & Electrical Infrastructure Apply the concept of pipeline hot tapping to cables to allow developments to tie in to main export line through electrical t-pieces.

Yes

Environmental Conditions Thermal detection of close to surface marine mammals.

Yes

Environmental Conditions Dual axis sonar as used in the prevention of quayside scour to monitor scour in offshore wind developments.

Yes

Environmental Conditions UXO explosion control material around piles to reduce noise propagation.

No

Operations & Maintenance Risk based inspection approach that is data driven ala approach to flexibles and umbilicals in oil and gas.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Create an evidence based standard for cable protection systems along the lines of the Pipeline Integrity Management System standard.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance AUVs for cable detection / monitoring and autonomous inspection.

Yes

Sub-Structures & Foundations Consider hybrid / concrete / floating structures installed without the use of heavy lift vessels.

Yes

Sub-Structures & Foundations Learn from other industries with experience in mass production of very large structures such as aircraft.

Yes

Sub-Structures & Foundations Place structures on top of decommissioned assets.

No

Sub-Structures & Foundations Build like a high rise building and float out.

No

Sub-Structures & Foundations Mix the steel and concrete industries as is prevalent in the construction industry at large. No concrete solution in the last five years.

No

Installation Specialist vessels with a year round business case which could improve weather sensitivity.

No

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DEVELOP

Theme Idea Sticker?

Cables & Electrical Infrastructure Development of new wet mateable connectors which provide an economic solution and more efficient installation and change out.

Yes

Cables & Electrical Infrastructure Develop a structure for performing inspection and maintenance that ensures the future integrity of cables and facilitates end of life / replacement planning.

Yes

Cables & Electrical Infrastructure Forced ventilation of the subsea structure to allow cooling of cable hot spots.

Yes

Environmental Conditions Move beyond snapshots of information with AUVs logging real time info from the seabed using transponders to relay information

to an acoustic hub.

No

Environmental Conditions Further development of means of mammal detection which can be loaded onto unmanned surface vessels.

No

Environmental Conditions Variable frequency noise cancellation technology to cancel piling noise.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Remote sensing of strain, temperature, acoustics and comms for preventative maintenance of floating wind structures.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Hi-resolution sonar for turbidity. No

Operations & Maintenance Monte Carlo simulations of weather statistics to optimise logistics and schedules.

No

Operations & Maintenance Remote sensing development of cameras, lights and batteries for scour detection. Diverless for round three developments as water depth increases.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Condition monitoring of bolt tensions.

No

Operations & Maintenance Market opportunity for offshore accommodation for deeper water, further offshore developments.

No

Sub-Structures & Foundations Modularise parts of the structure, those that do not change with size. Standardise structure but adapt foundation for changing ground conditions.

Yes

Sub-Structures & Foundations Standardisation and mass production of secondary and tertiary steel structures as a starting point to work from.

Yes

Sub-Structures & Foundations Construct in a modular way with continual output to use vessel time efficiently where offload from site may cause hold-ups.

Yes

Sub-Structures & Foundations Compliant structure that allows flexibility to take out loads as a floating structure would to reduce steel requirements.

No

Installation New ploughing technologies to solve issue of plough falling during trenching.

No

Installation Improved thermal fatigue of cable to reduce failure rate during warranty period.

No

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COLLABORATE

Theme Idea Sticker?

Cables & Electrical Infrastructure Standardisation of approach across industry e.g. DONG ethos.

Yes

Cables & Electrical Infrastructure Shortage of skilled personnel with capacity increasing to 66kV and beyond.

Yes

Cables & Electrical Infrastructure Apply the concept of pipeline hot tapping to cables to allow developments to tie in to main export line through electrical t-pieces.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Cross operator inspection and maintenance campaigns.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Vessel and campaign clubs making use of oil and gas IRM vessels.

Yes

Operations & Maintenance Assemble one body to coordinate industry standards and best practices.

Yes

Sub-Structures & Foundations Develop an industry forum on standards and lessons learned, adopting codes which already exist.

Yes

Sub-Structures & Foundations Cooperation of different operators on design of structures across sites with similar ground conditions.

Yes

Installation Joined up industry thinking to

allow year round operations.

No

Installation Getting ideas into designs early in EPIC contracts.

Yes

Installation Allow year round installation. Need volume of project look ahead to get costs down.

No

Subsea Technological Challenges in Offshore Wind Report 2.0

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