Windcat Workboats H2 20220414 Medium (2)

Operation & Maintenance Subgroup

Operation and maintenance is one of the long term opportunity areas attached to the development of offshore wind in Scotland – with ports and harbours providing and earmarked for O&M bases already seeing growth and regeneration.

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The UK Operations & Maintenance (O&M) Market

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in their 2020 Electricity Generation Costs report puts the average cost for O&M for a 1,000MW offshore wind farm at £50m per annum. This includes fixed and variable costs. The UK's target for offshore wind by 2030 is now 50GW in total, making the O&M market worth approximately £2.5bn per annum by that date.

The 2050 forecast of the offshore wind market in the UK is now around 120GW, if we are to achieve the UK's Net Zero target, and while O&M costs are forecast to reach £35.5m per GW by this date it would still mean that the market will be worth in excess of £4.25bn per annum.

This is now the lower end of the market estimate for 2050 as it does not factor in any future offshore wind projects dedicated to the production of hydrogen which is a subsector expected to emerge at scale before the end of this decade. 

Image Credit (left) - Dangle Rope Access

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Innovation in O&M Strategies

The future years of the O&M market will be dominated by the pressure to reach this £35.5m/GW level.

The general road to cost reduction for the offshore wind sector will involve larger turbine capacities, longer blade lengths and be further offshore. While these will reduce overall CAPEX costs they will add to issues already being seen in the industry with leading edge blade erosion, damage due to higher tip speeds, longer vessel journeys and shorter weather access windows.

Better material technology will assist to alleviate some of the problems but it will fall on the supply chain to come up with the innovation across all these areas which will be necessary to keep future cost reduction strategies on track.

Our O&M subgroup members represent almost every facet of the offshore wind operation and maintenance supply chain, and will be involved in developing and delivering the innovation required by the industry, not just in the UK, but globally.

Image right - DeepWind developer group member, Vattenfall, are using their European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre at Aberdeen Bay to test drive innovation in O&M. They are also adding offshore production of hydrogen to this site with their HT1(Hydrogen Turbine 1) project which will also demonstrate related O&M operations for offshore hydrogen production.  

Moray East - new O&M base at Fraserburgh Harbour

O&M bases

With over 25 ports and harbours, O&M bases are are growing opportunity for businesses operating in this area. 

Developers are already signing 25 year leases to place their O&M bases in ports and harbours near to their wind farm sites creating the opportunity for new jobs in many of the communities surrounding them.

Our work with ESP, Skills Development Scotland, OPITO, ECITB and the local college network on the new Skills for Offshore Wind Partnership aims to ensure that local people are offered the ability to gain the skills necessary to become turbine technicians, vessel crew, drone pilots and many of the other roles required to operate and maintain the offshore wind farms. 

Refurbished or new facilities will be springing up at many of our smaller port sites such as those that already exist at Wick and Fraserburgh Harbours or the SSE Renewables one just constructed at Montrose. Another facility for the Inch Cape projects is also planned for Montrose as well as a recently announced base at Buckie for the Moray West project. As other new wind farms appear in the far north or on the West Coast then many more such bases will be needed by the offshore wind industry.

O&M Base at Fraserburgh Harbour.
Image credit (left) - Moray East Offshore Windfarm

 

Moray East substation under construction at New Deer

Electrical Infrastructure

Besides the offshore wind farms themselves, there is the related electrical power infrastructure to be maintained. This consists of the subsea cables, offshore and onshore substations, as well as the HVDC convertor stations, which will also be required for the larger capacity windfarms further from shore.

The addition of dynamic cable maintenance and inspection for floating wind projects is already an area that Scotland leads the world on as we ae already home to the world's largest floating offshore wind farms, Hywind Scotland and the Kincardine project, with the 100MW Pentland Floating Wind farm due to be added to this list by 2024/25.

The huge floating wind projects in the ScotWind round could also see the introduction of floating HVAC and HVDC substations which will come with their own O&M challenges.  

Subsea inspection, HV cable repair and maintenance, along with substation operations and servicing, will require a further set of skills, vessels and equipment that our subgroup members have in abundance.   

Image Credit - Moray East Offshore Wind Ltd

O&M Subgroup Membership

DeepWind's O&M Subgroup is led by our two industry Co-chairs Stephen Thomson from Fugro and Callum Maxwell from Proserv. It currently consists of 309 members, all listed below. It will continue to grow as we recruit new members from the main DeepWind cluster or from additional new members.

1 1StopWind 156 Jamieson Management (Scotland) Ltd 
2 4C Offshore 157 JD Neuhaus UK Ltd
3 4MS Network Solutions 158 JDR Cable Systems
4 4Subsea 159 Jee Limited
5 ABL Aberdeen Limited 160 Jifmar Scotland
6 Absoft 161 Juran Benchmarking 
7 ACE Winches 162 KD Marine
8 Acteon Group 163 Kent
9 Advanced Blade Repair Services 164 Kito Crosby
10 Aerossurance 165 Kraken Robotics Services UK Limited
11 Airspection 166 KRG Specialist Engineering Services Limited
12 AISUS 167 Largs Chandlers Commercial 
13 AJ Engineering & Construction Services 168 Leask Marine
14 AJT Engineering Limited  169 Legasea
15 Altrad Babcock 170 Lerwick Engineering and Fabrication
16 Altrad Sparrows 171 Liftmax Europe Ltd
17 Amber Electrical Services 172 Lloyd's Register EMEA 
18 Ampelmann Operations  173 London Marine Consultants
19 AMS Global Group 174 LV Logistics
20 Approved Power Services 175 MacLean International Group
21 Aqua Innovations 176 Malakoff Limited  
22 Aquaterra Energy 177 Mallaig Harbour Authority
23 AquaTerra Group 178 Manor Renewable Energy
24 Arc AeroSystems Ltd 179 Marlow Ropes
25 Archaeological Management Solutions  180 MarynSol Ltd
26 Arrow Industrial Group Limited 181 Mayteck Ltd
27 Asco  182 MB Air Systems Ltd
28 Ashtead Technology 183 MDB Marine Ltd
29 Associated British Ports 184 Mesh Global Ltd
30 Aubin Limited 185 Michael Gall Transport Limited
31 Aurora Energy Services  186 Mingyang Smart Energy Group Limited 
32 Aventus Energy 187 Miros Scotland
33 Bain Consulting Group Ltd  188 MISTRAS Group
34 Balmore Wind Services  189 MoorEast UK
35 Bauer Coatings & Inspection Ltd  190 More Wind Resources
36 Black & Veatch 191 Morgenstern Energy
37 Blackhall & Powis 192 Motive Offshore Group Limited
38 Bourbon Wind  193 Myriad Wind Energy Systems 
39 bp Innovation and Engineering 194 NES Fircroft
40 Brammer Buck & Hickman 195 Nevis Technology Ltd
41 Briggs Marine 196 Nexus Surface Treatments
42 Brimmond 197 NorrScott Productions
43 Business Finland 198 North East Scotland College
44 BVG Associates 199 Northern Marine Services
45 C&P Recruitment 200 NOV
46 Cadpeople 201 Nova Innovation Ltd
47 Caiman Software Development Ltd 202 N-Sea UK Limited
48 Cairn Risk Consulting Ltd  203 Ocean Infinity 
49 CAN Renewables 204 Ocean Information Services
50 Cebo UK 205 Ocean Phoenix International Limited
51 CEGAL 206 Oceaneering
52 Centurion UK Rentals and Services 207 OEG Renewables 
53 Chemco International Ltd  208 OES Oilfield Services Ltd 
54 Chrysalis Energy Limited 209 Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult
55 Cirrus Wind Services Ltd 210 O'Mac Construction Ltd 
56 Clowes Development 211 Opergy Scotland Ltd
57 Clyde EPC Ltd  212 Optimus
58 Clyde Travel Management 213 Orion Engineering
59 Coast Offshore 214 Orion Research
60 Contingency Storage Solutions 215 OTAQ Group
61 Cooper and Turner Distribution Limited  216 PANOLIN Biodegradable Lubricants (Shell UK)
62 Craig International 217 Paratus Commercial Services Limited 
63 Csolutions 218 Partrac
64 Cummins UK 219 PB Aerial Imaging Ltd
65 Dangle Ltd 220 PD & MS Group
66 DeepOcean Subsea Services 221 PDG Helicoptors
67 Denholm Industrial Services 222 Pentagon Freight Services Plc
68 DH Renewables 223 Petrofac Facilities Management Ltd
69 Digitalnauts 224 Port of Aberdeen
70 DOF Subsea 225 Port of Inverness
71 Dolfines SA 226 Portakabin (Scotland) Limited 
72 Donut International Ltd 227 Precision Tooling & Castings Ltd
73 Dron & Dickson 228 Presserv
74 Eden Scott 229 Prior Power Solutions
75 EDF Renewables 230 Proserv (Synaptec)
76 EDS HV Management 231 PSG Marine & Logistics Ltd
77 E-FWD 232 Quanta EPC
78 Ekwil 233 Quartzelec
79 Element 2 Ltd 234 Quensh HSEQ Specialists
80 Eletelle Subsea Ltd 235 R&B Switchgear Services 
81 EMM Corp 236 Reach Subsea
82 Enerfloat Ltd 237 RED Engineering 
83 Energy Insider 238 Red Rock Power
84 Enerpro 239 Reed & Mackay
85 Engineering Construction Industry Training Board 240 Renantis
86 ESR UK (Group) Ltd 241 Renewable Parts
87 ESS 242 RenQuip
88 Euro Energy Services Limited 243 Reoptimize Systems 
89 European Marine Energy Centre 244 Rix Renewables
90 Evami Consultancy Services  245 Rix Shipping (Scotland) Ltd
91 Exceed Energy 246 RMI
92 Farsight 247 RMJ Hicks Ltd
93 Fathom Group Ltd 248 ROAVR Group
94 Fennex 249 Robert Gordon University
95 Fern Communications 250 Robertson Group
96 Ffolkes Offshore 251 Roemex
97 Film Ocean 252 Roving Eye Enterprises Ltd
98 First Marine Solutions 253 ROVOP
99 First People Solutions 254 Royal Haskoning DHV
100 Flare Fire Safety Engineering Ltd 255 RS Group
101 Foundation Collective  256 RSL NDT
102 Fraserburgh Harbour 257 RTS Wind
103 Fraser-Nash Consultancy 258 Safelift Offshore Ltd
104 Frontier Robotics 259 Safetrade 247 Limited
105 Fugro 260 Savante Offshore Services Ltd
106 GAC Group 261 Scottish Renewables
107 Gareloch Support Services 262 Searchwise Aberdeen
108 Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions 263 Semco Maritime
109 GB Tarpaulins 264 Sennen
110 GCE 265 Sensoar Limited
111 GDDM 266 Sercel
112 Genevos 267 Shearwater Marine Services
113 Geodis FF UK Ltd  268 Shimadzu Corporation
114 GEOxyz Ltd 269 Simply Blue Group
115 Gibb Group Ltd 270 Singapore Enterprise
116 Global Port Services (Scotland) Ltd  271 Skyborn Renewables
117 Global Quantum 272 Skyhook Helicopters
118 Global Underwater Hub 273 Skylifter Ltd
119 GM Fab Ltd 274 Sonardyne International Limited
120 GMC Limited 275 Spectrum Engineering Solutions 
121 Gow's Lybster Limited 276 Spencer Ogden
122 Green Marine 277 Stauff UK Limited
123 Griffen-Woodhouse Limited 278 STC Insiso
124 GTL Search 279 Storr Access
125 Gulfxstream 280 Stowen
126 Hagland Shipbrokers 281 Stuart Brown Consulting
127 Halliburton 282 Sulmara Subsea
128 Harper UK (Aberdeen) Ltd 283 Superior Recruitment Group
129 Harvest Technology Group (UK) ltd  284 Swire Renewable Energy
130 Hawkes Health (UK) Ltd 285 Synaptec
131 Hebridean Sea Tours Ltd  286 Taylor Hopkinson Ltd
132 Helix Robotics Solutions Ltd 287 Technip Energies N.V.
133 Heriot-Watt University 288 Texo Group Limited
134 Highlands & Islands Enterprise 289 The Environmental Recruitment Agency 
135 HLP 290 Therma-Light Limited 
136 HPR ROV Ltd 291 Three60 Energy
137 Hugh K Gillies (Construction and Engineering Services) Ltd 292 Tom Morrow Tarpaulins
138 Hunting Energy Services 293 Torishima Service Solutions Europe Limited
139 Hydromea Services 294 Trac Energy
140 IKM Testing 295 Transmission Investment Services Limited
141 Indeximate Ltd 296 TSL Contractors
142 Indigo 7 Ventures 297 TugDock
143 Industrias Ferri SA 298 Van Oord Offshore Wind UK
144 Innovair 299 Ventus Resources Limited
145 Inspectahire Instrument Co. Ltd  300 V-TES
146 Instow Line Marine Services 301 Waterfront (Stainless Steel) Ltd
147 Instrument Transformers Limited  302 Wave Venture
148 Integrity Integrated Service Solutions  303 Waves Group
149 Intelligent Plant 304 Westerton Access
150 Intermara Marine 305 Whittaker Engineering
151 Interocean Marine Services 306 Windcat Workboats (Scotland) Ltd
152 IRC Integrity 307 Windhoist
153 Irvine Springs 308 Wood
154 ITC Hydraulics & Manufacturing 309 Woodys Express Parcels Ltd
155 J+S Subsea    

   

DeepWind subgroups

Explore our other subgroups and the benefits of membership.

Power2X Subgroup

Our Power2X Subgroup is involved in looking at alternate products from offshore wind besides the normal electricity to the grid business model.

Cables Subgroup

Onshore and offshore exports cables, subsea array and dynamic cables, this subgroup covers all aspects of offshore wind cables

Survey and Inspection Subgroup

From early stage development surveys to all aspects of aerial, surface and subsea inspections, this subgroup covers it all.