Function
Offshore vessels are used to access offshore infrastructure, and offshore logistics involves management and coordination of all marine-based activities and operations.
What it costs*
About £1 million per annum for a 450 MW floating offshore wind farm.
Who supplies them
James Fisher Marine Services, SeaRoc, Vissim and WindandWater.
The wind farm owner establishes and manages a marine operations centre at the main O&M port.
Key facts
Marine coordination involves the 24/7 monitoring of the locations of all vessels and personnel within the vicinity of the project, including the supply and interpretation of specialist tools such as marine coordination software.
Cameras are often located on selected offshore structures to enable CCTV feeds to review conditions and monitor offshore activities.
Operators need to make judgements about the priority of activities based on the scheduled maintenance and unscheduled service workload and weather forecast. The industry is increasingly adopting software simulation tools to maximise operational efficiency in relation to scheduling tasks and deploying resources, taking account of weather conditions, sea state, vessel capability and operational priorities.
Bigger wind farms further offshore and with more complex operational systems increase the logistical challenge.
Robust communication equipment and infrastructure is a key element of offshore logistics in order to ensure live communication between all personnel.
Small wind farms close to shore use CTVs to provide daily transport to the wind farm for technicians. Large wind farms further from shore use SOVs to house technicians offshore for multiple weeks at a time to conduct maintenance campaigns.
Some portfolios leverage benefits of scale by using SOVs to service several smaller wind farms in the same geographical region.