The Dutch-German transmission system operator (TSO), TenneT, is exploring interest in an initiative to jointly house management and maintenance services of the offshore infrastructure in a new model.
In the coming period, TenneT will share information and ideas with wind farm and oil & gas operators to gauge their interest in the collaborative model.
TenneT expects to have realized 17 offshore grid connections with an installed capacity of more than 21 GW of offshore wind in the Dutch North Sea by 2031, all of which will require regular maintenance.
Materials, personnel, installations and vessels for maintenance and management are scarce, the TSO said, adding that when parties act together and start sharing these resources, they can be used more efficiently.
The enormous growth in offshore infrastructure development creates a great need for operations and maintenance services. According to TenneT, oil & gas operators have already partly found each other in forms of cooperation, while many wind farm operators still arrange this themselves, or procure these services separately.
The initiative aims to address long waiting times for maintenance due to resources becoming increasingly scarce leading to vessels not always being used efficiently.
Erik Hiensch , responsible for Operations & Maintenance offshore at TenneT, said: ”We notice that many parties are facing the same challenges as TenneT, which is why we want to investigate whether we can develop a new cooperation model. As an offshore transmission system operator, we play an important role in the development of offshore infrastructure and want to take the lead in this initiative.”
TenneT expects to achieve greater efficiency by sharing, for example, the deployment of vessels, personnel, and materials. This can save money by jointly organizing services on a larger scale, for example.
In addition, this can also ensure a more sustainable way of organizing work with less impact on the environment and increase safety at sea by being able to perform the same work with fewer vessel movements.
”We are tackling the ‘Sharing of Offshore O&M Services’ (SOOMS) plan in two phases,” Hiensch said.
”First we show relevant parties what we plan to do and gauge who wants to participate. TenneT is organizing an information meeting on April 23 to discuss this with interested parties. If there is enough interest, in the second phase we will discuss where the most opportunities for collaboration lie and what the practical, financial and legal aspects look like to implement the plan.”