UK employee owned marine engineering company Houlder has announced that the Turbine Access System (TAS) being jointly developed with BMT Nigel Gee to provide safe personnel access to offshore wind turbines will feature in a visual presentation at the EWEA 2011 Conference in Brussels.
The patented access platform technology is already strongly supported by industry including developers’ and vessel operators’ in recognition of both the significant safety improvement and increased maintenance window it provides from workboats in rougher weather.
Preliminary analysis also indicates its greater transfer capability will have a substantial beneficial impact on the bottom line over present arrangements.
Increasing the significant wave height window for personnel transfer from 1.5m to 2.0m, for example, allows quick resets and minor turbine repairs to be undertaken on a higher proportion of North Sea work days.
This uplift has been shown to improve turbine availability from 80 per cent to 90 per cent, which for a 5MW turbine, as expected to be deployed for much of UK Round 3 developments, equates to extra annual revenue of £245k per turbine.
Taking the proposed 9GW Dogger Bank field as the most onerous example, this equates to a possible additional revenue of £441 million a year.
Currently in detailed design phase, Houlder is already talking to field developers and stakeholders about delivering the first TAS units in the third quarter this year.
As well as appearing at EWEA next month, Houlder plan to promote the system in the UK at Southampton’s SeaWork International Exhibition June 14-16th 2011.
[mappress]
Source: houlderltd February 23, 2011