Galloper Offshore Windfarm Limited has chartered Seacat Services’ windfarm support/crew transfer vessel (CTV) Seacat Ranger.
Under the terms of the three year contract, the 24m Seacat Ranger will be deployed at the offshore wind farm from August this year.
In September, she will be joined by sister vessels, Seacat Liberty and Seacat Vigilant. This follows a separate 2-year agreement signed in May with turbine supplier Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (Siemens Gamesa). The three vessels will be based out of Harwich.
Galloper is currently in construction off the Suffolk coast and innogy SE is leading the construction and operation of the 336MW wind farm on behalf of the project partners.
Siemens Gamesa is supplying and maintaining the 56 turbines and both Siemens and Galloper use crew transfer vessels to access the offshore wind turbines and the substation.
Seacat Ranger and her crew will handle a broad scope of work, encompassing both technician and equipment transfers, in support of planned maintenance and performance optimisation taking place during the first three years of operations at Galloper.
“Close collaboration in vessel deployment can yield an extensive range of benefits for all of the parties involved in the development and operation of technically and logistically complex offshore wind farms,” said Ian Baylis , Managing Director, Seacat Services.
“With the drive to optimise efficiency and get the most out of maintenance budgets, the ability to take a more versatile approach – and share project resources – will provide project operators, developers and OEMs alike with a more practical means of meeting collective goals.”