Carbon Trust Invites Companies to Look Into Sliding Access

The Carbon Trust, within its Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) programme, is looking for companies who will carry out a study of the sliding access method and determine if it can be de-risked.

According to the invitation to tender, interested parties can ask questions until 6 October, with the answers to be posted on the Carbon Trust’s website by 12 October 2017. The deadline for submitting tenders is 26 October 2017.

Specifically, the project aims to determine the risk factors and existing procedures to understand if the sliding access method can be de-risked and the conditions under which it could be considered safe from a developers’ perspective for day to day operations, the Carbon Trust explained.

The main objectives of the work to be undertaken are:

• Assess the risks of sliding access in offshore wind and mitigation methods.
• Assess the skills and competence requirements for undertaking sliding access.
• Create a method for comparing vessel performance for sliding access.
• Review the systems available in the market or under development that could support and de-risk sliding access.

Sliding access is a method involving a vessel being allowed to slide against the boat landing with the wave motion theoretically giving a more predictable moment of transfer.

While the risks, mitigation and undertaking of fixed access is well understood by the wind farm developers, but there is a knowledge and experience gap for sliding access, the Carbon Trust explained, adding that there is also new technology on the market and being developed, such as fall arrestor and hoist systems, which could improve safety in personnel transfer during sliding access.

There are significant barriers that exist currently that are stopping the implementation of using sliding access to access wind turbines, particularly if climbing without the use of a fall arrestor. Safety and accessibility are the major concerns when considering access with smaller vessels, such as daughtercraft.