UK: Partrac Completes Oceanographic Surveys in Moray Firth Round 3 Zone

Partrac Ltd has announced the successful completion of metocean surveys in the Moray Firth Round 3 Zone. Contracted by Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd (MORL), Partrac, headquartered in Glasgow, managed the planning, deployment, maintenance and recovery of metocean monitoring equipment to collect and analyse marine data over a two-year period.

MORL (a joint venture between between EDP Renovaveis and Repsol) has recently submitted it’s consent application to develop a Round 3 offshore wind farm in the Moray Firth. The acquisition of site specific metocean data undepins both the engineering design and the coastal process element of the EIA. Partrac were commissioned to monitor the waves, currents tidal levels and turbidity in the region.

To date, Partrac has undertaken surveys at 12 offshore wind farm developments (with 50% of them based in Scotland), and has recently completed a 15-month monitoring campaign for Narec at their proposed offshore demonstration site situated off Blyth, Northumberland.

Francisco Espin Molina, Offshore Wind Resource Manager, EDP Renovaveis, comments: “MORL has been happy with the quality of service provided by Partrac in the initial oceanographic campaign stage and in the further campaign extension. The dataset recorded has a paramount importance to environmental and engineering assessment purposes. We hope to continue our relationship with Partrac in the near future.”

Sam Athey, Offshore Wind Director at Partrac, comments: “We are delighted to have successfully completed the two-year metocean campaign in the Moray Firth Round 3 zone. Often metocean surveys are one of the first surveys commissioned for new developments and as such the conditions at site are unknown. Our team carefully managed the survey to access the available weather windows and access to the limited vessel options in the region. This ensured that the survey achieved maximum data recovery at least risk to our client, MORL.

“We are the only independent company to have worked in nearly all Scottish offshore wind farm developments. We believe this is testament to our high level of technical knowledge, experience of complex marine environments and high quality data provision.” 

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Press release, September 25, 2012; Image: Partrac