Remotely Controlled Survey Wraps Up at Greater Gabbard

The XO-450 conducted seabed surveys on seven of the project’s 140 turbines over the weekend at the site located 23km off the coast.

The vessel was remotely controlled from shore, representing a first for the offshore wind sector, innogy said.

Throughout the survey, the data collected was monitored from shore in real-time to validate data collection before the vessel departed the work locations.

According to the company, the unmanned vessel is around the size of an average car (4.5m) and half its weight (750kg), and can be monitored and controlled 24/7 via a satellite connection by a team at an onshore control center.

“We are constantly looking for innovative ways in which we can operate our fleet of renewables assets,” said Jeremy Williamson, SSE Renewables Head of Operations.

“XOCEAN’s vessel will allow us to carry out our work in a more efficient, and most importantly for SSE Renewables and our partners innogy, in the safest way possible. We’re really interested to see how this sort of work can help improve our industry and look forward to working with XOCEAN in future.”

The 500MW Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm comprises 140 Siemens 3.6MW turbines that were fully commissioned in September 2012.