The Offshore Wind Innovation Hub used ABPmer's Weather Downtime Express to test scenarios for floating offshore wind operation and maintenance repairs.

ABPmer recently supported a study by the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub (OWIH) into potential operation and maintenance (O&M) costs for floating offshore wind. As part of their Industry Insight Series, the Hub’s new report looks at options for the repairs, estimated at 23% of annual O&M costs.

The focus of the work has been ‘Major Repairs’, defined as any corrective action which, if occurring on a bottom-fixed offshore wind farm, would require the use of a jack-up or heavy lift vessel.

The study provides a comparison of the costs of employing either an offsite (tow to port) or onsite (fix in-situ) approach. Scenarios tested included regional location, distance offshore, severity of seasonal weather conditions and different types of floating OWF sub-structures (Spars, Semi-submersibles and Tension Leg Platforms).

In their analysis, OWIH used ABPmer’s Weather Downtime Express (WDTX) to test the scenarios. WDTX is an automated service which identifies the likely amount of weather downtime periods during a sequence of marine operations. The service uses operational task lists (and associated working limits of vessels and equipment) to perform a sequential simulation of available weather windows, based on global datasets of marine weather and sea states back to 1979.

The results of the study show the importance of seastate and metocean analysis to marine operational planning. ABPmer’s David Lambkin, Numerical Modeller and WDTX developer, said:

“Having supported the offshore wind industry for over 20 years, ABPmer is aware of the importance of consistent metocean analysis for strategic decision making; this is the reason we developed Weather Downtime Express. We have assisted many bottom-fixed offshore wind developments, primarily at the installation phase. However, consistent metocean analysis will be even more important for floating wind at all stages of project development: project siting, design, installation and O&M.

We welcomed the opportunity to support OWIH with their innovative work as the nascent floating wind industry targets cost saving and rapid growth.”

Download the report at the OWIH website.

To find out more about the Weather Downtime Express Service, or for a free trial, visit ABPmer's SEASTATES microsite.