Offshore Development Issues: Offshore Project Case Studies

Session A5 | Day 2, Wed 26 Oct, 10.15-11.30 | Exchange Auditorium, Ground Floor

Examples of projects being delivered by the people that are delivering them – What worked? What didn't work? How can we deliver projects better?

• Chair: Duarte Figueira, Department of Energy and Climate Change
• Rune Rønvik, Statoil
• Richard Cooke, Emu Ltd
• Gareth Lewis, Forewind
• Jesper Kraup Hoist, DONG Energy Power (UK) Ltd

Chair:
Duarte Figueira, Head of Offshore Renewables, Department of Energy and Climate Change

Duarte Figueira is Head of the Offshore Renewables in the Office for Renewable Energy Deployment (ORED) in DECC, focusing on offshore wind, wave and tidal and hydro energy. This involves addressing barriers to deployment as well as driving business development opportunities arising from offshore renewables growth. Key recent areas of work have included setting up the Marine Energy Programme Board to bring together key stakeholders in the marine sector and the management of the funding for offshore wind infrastructure at port locations announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). He has also held posts at UKTI and BIS in the areas of trade promotion, export licensing, non-proliferation policy, business support and competition policy. He holds an MBA from Warwick University and an MSc in Politics and Administration from London University.

Speaker:
Rune Rønvik, Project Director Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm, Statoil

Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm – Status and Key Learning
The Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm, a 317 MW Round 2 project located 20 km off the coast of Norfolk is under construction with installation of wind turbines to start June 2011. The first production is scheduled for 3Q 2011 and the total project completion for 2Q 2012. The presentation will give a short status of the project, but mainly address challenges and learning from the installation and prepare for operation phases. Focus is on the marine installations, HSE and organisation of the principle contractor role, and the cooperation between the project and operations during the installation and commissioning phases.

Rune Rønvik has more than 20 years experience from the oil and gas business most of the time as Project Manager within areas varying from business development, Project Manager and Asset Manager for oil and gas field development in the early phases and during the execution phase, and as Offshore Installation Manager at the Troll Field on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. For the last three and a half years he has been Project Director for the Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm project.

Speaker:
Richard Cooke, Technical Director, Emu Ltd

A New Technique to Survey for Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) as used on the Sheringham Shoal Wind Farm
The possible presence of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) on proposed offshore windfarm sites is a problem that has to be considered on the majority of UK offshore windfarm sites. Surveys for UXO have used ROVs, divers or a towed magnetometer. On large windfarm sites these techniques can be time consuming and expensive. A new survey technique has been developed that reduces survey time and costs by over 50% and provides a comprehensive data set. This technique was used to survey the Sheringham Shoal windfarm site and associated cable to shore and provide a web based GIS for windfarm planning.

Richard graduated with degrees in applied geology and oceanography more than 20 years ago and has been working in the marine survey industry ever since. Richard has conducted geophysical, geotechnical and oceanographic studies worldwide both inshore and offshore. Richard joined EMU Ltd and set up and developed the geophysical survey team which has grown to more than 50 surveyors. Richard is now a technical director at EMU Ltd with a remit that includes development of new survey capabilities.

Speaker:
Gareth Lewis, Head of Offshore Development, Forewind

Dogger Bank – How to develop the World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm!
First take an offshore area the size of North Yorkshire; add a consortium of four international energy companies and 40 expert staff. In the first year mix with: three specially-adapted aircraft, 11 survey vessels, more than 100 experienced consultants and 500,000 working hours. While simmering: engage with National Grid, utilise support from The Crown Estate and prepare prime stakeholders with a stream of ideas, season as necessary. For culinary masterpieces, and challenging projects, time is of the essence, safety is paramount and a careful eye must be kept on the milestones as well as obstacles including inclement weather and unforeseeable conditions.

Gareth Lewis is a qualified marine biologist, underwater technologist, commercial diver and yachtmaster. He has 22 years experience with marine developments in roles from consultant to chief marine scientist. For the past 11 years he has worked in offshore renewables having seen the industry's green light. He joined Amec as project manager for the Lynn project then led the consent team for Docking Shoal and Race Bank. After a stint with EDF he joined SSE in 2009. He now represents SSE within the Forewind consortium as Head of Offshore Development for Dogger Bank, potentially the world’s biggest offshore wind project.

Jesper Kraup Hoist, Head of UK Project Development, Director, DONG Energy Power (UK) Ltd

The West of Duddon Sands Offshore Wind Project and other DONG Energy Developments in the East Irish Sea
The presentation will give an overview of the West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm project and provide details of DONG Energy’s other development assets in the East Irish Sea.

Jesper Holst is a Director at DONG Energy Renewables and Head of UK Project Development. Jesper has been involved in UK offshore wind since 2004 initially developing the London Array and Gunfleet Sands projects. His educational background includes an MSc in Environmental Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark. He has recently submitted his dissertation for an MBA at Henley Business School.