Scira Offshore Energy Limited has chosen MeteoGroup to provide comprehensive lightning forecasting, consultancy and monitoring services for its Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm.
Lightning poses a serious risk to the maintenance personnel who travel daily to and from an onshore base to work on the inherently exposed 80 metre high wind turbine towers. Therefore, accurate detection and forecasting support is crucial for safe and efficient operation on the site which is located between 17 and 23 kilometres off the UK’s Norfolk coastline and operated by Statkraft – Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy.
At the heart of MeteoGroup’s service is the LightningTracker webportal which provides precise, real-time lightning detection data. This is supported by customised, longer range 24 hour and five day forecasting for the Sheringham Shoal area. Once lightning is detected within a given radius of the site, forecasters will contact the operation and maintenance base to ensure the appropriate people are alerted to the potential danger. MeteoGroup expert meteorologists are also available 24/7 if further assistance is required.
The objective is to ensure the wind turbines operate at maximum capacity whilst keeping engineers and technicians safe by clearly identifying either potential hazards or safe weather windows. Accurate and reliable data will help the company make day to day operational decisions and fulfil its duty of care to personnel working in such an exposed environment.
Chosen based on quality of service, MeteoGroup is well established in the off-shore sector and provides bespoke services for many different types of off-shore operations. It has also invested in the best possible lightning data from a high density network of sensors which, due to advanced detection technology, can locate even relatively weak lightning signals. A second, complementary detection network guarantees resilience and optimal European coverage.
The 317MW Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm has 88 wind turbines and Statkraft expects it to generate around 1.1TWh of green energy per annum – enough clean energy to power almost 220,000 British homes. Compared to fossil fuels, this represents an annual reduction of around 500,000 tonnes of CO² emissions.