Greater Gabbard wind farm’s first wind farms, located 23km off Sizewell, began to supply the national grid in January 2011. The joint venture between Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and RWE Innogy constructed started in 2008 and has since created a hundred permanent jobs at its £1.5m operations and maintenance base in Lowestoft.
The 504 megawatt (MW) site is roughly two and a half hours by boat from shore and needs to be serviced by helicopters.
Stephen Rose, head of offshore wind generation for the Greater Gabbard array advises that lesson have been learned and that changes had to be made to how the turbines were maintained:
“We’ve had to be open minded think flexibly, be prepared to modify plans and vary our approach to service and operation at regular intervals.
“We learned that the weather and marine environment can vary dramatically across a vast 147 sq km site and having a control room that operated for only 12 hours a day limited our ability to respond to turbine resents and therefore plan effectively for the next working day in the event of any interventions being necessary
“These challenges led us to extend our control room hours and change some of our seagoing vessels in order to have the relevant capabilities to safely access the offshore turbines in rougher weather conditions”
As warranty agreements with manufacturer Siemens draw to a close, Greater Gabbard’s owners will soon have to choose between servicing the turbines itself, entering a contract with a third part or remaining with the status quo.
Mr Rose advised that the pioneering success of Greater Gabbard had prepared his team for its next offshore project off the North coast of Scotland.
The Future
RWE Innogy continues to review the viability of a new business case for Galloper wind farm, an extension to the Greater Gabbard project, which was shelved last October when the firm said it was unable to meet finance deadlines after joint owner SSE pulled out.
The project which had been expected to be completed by 2017, is now moving into a detailed design work phase, involving its supply chain partners and potential equity finance partners. The aim is to enable onshore construction to begin before the end of the year.
