GDG Secures Hai Long Owners Engineer Role

Irish offshore engineering company, Gavin and Doherty Geosolutions Ltd. (GDG), has won a contract to provide geotechnical and geophysical Owners Engineering services for the Hai Long offshore wind farm in Taiwan.

The Hai Long 2 and 3 projects have consent for up to 1044MW of renewable electricity and are in advanced development stages.

According to GDG, 2020 is shaping up to be a busy year for the project with significant survey and design work to be conducted. The site investigations comprise the final geotechnical campaigns for the turbine locations, geophysical and geotechnical campaigns to support cable engineering, as well as specialist surveys for other aspects of the project.

“Our collaboration with GDG brings a depth of expertise and technical capability into the project team through the owners engineer role,” Deputy BOP Package Manager and Foundation EPC Package Manager for Hai Long Offshore Wind, Alex Patrascu, said.

”The project team is now bolstered with GDGs’ extensive engineering ability, which will help de-risk the project, bring additional certainty to critical areas and hopefully help drive down costs. We look forward to continuing our working relationship with GDG in the months and years ahead as the project advances through the survey campaigns and moves into design, fabrication and installation.”

GDGs’ role on the project is to support the project developers, which include Canadian energy company Northland Power, Yushan Energy, and Mitsui & Co, who have partnered for the development of the Hai Long 2 and 3 wind farms in zones 18 and 19 offshore Changhua.

The services being provided by GDG include geotechnical strategy support, site investigation management including local operational support, client representatives, ground & modelling, and owners engineering around key interfaces such as the substructure design. The development activities are on a progressive timeline with installation planned for 2023.

“The Changhua area of Taiwan is known to be technically challenging with specific issues such as earthquake induced liquefaction, typhoons, and a developing supply chain all requiring detailed consideration,” a Managing Director for GDG said.

”This type of project is very well suited to GDGs’ expertise in providing technical support and engineering services for complex environments. Furthermore, we are confident that by working collaboratively with Northland Power International (NPI) and the wider Hai Long team, this project will be delivered in an optimized and efficient manner.”