Page 38: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2021)

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DOGGER BANK TORGEIR RAMSTAD, CEO, OHT we took the Tesla approach. We didn’t start with the car. We are a contractor, and as such, you rely on trusting the people started with the software.” that you deal with, and you rely on being able to speak the same

Central to the success of an operation of this scale in this en- language, understand the challenges, and address them in the vironment is stability. While many of the challenges to mono- proper way. I believe that was an equally important aspect that pile installation in DP mode mirror the challenges found in was valid, and eventually led to that contract award (a contract pipelaying, there is one very important difference: the size and awarded by Equinor, then upon the signing with OHT handed weight of the unit being installed. off to SSE, Equinor’s partner, to execute the contract.) “The challenge is to keep the vessel stable enough to achieve

INSIDE ALFA LIFT very tight tolerances, in terms of verticality for the monopiles,” said Ramstad. “You have to stabilize the monopile, which can As the offshore wind industry grows, ‘feeding the beast’ de- be a hundred meters high and weigh maybe two and a half mands effciency from foundation manufacture to fnal in- thousand tons. You’re holding it around the center of gravity or stall. In this regard, Alfa Lift is both the beast and the buffet even below it … It’s unstable. So we deploy SpaceX algorithms line, designed to cut down on trips from the feld to the port.

to control it,” the same way SpaceX are able to control the rock- “When we went to the ship designer Ulstein in Rotterdam, et’s landing on a barge in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.” we didn’t come with the normal standard metrics – this long,

Alfa Lift is scheduled to join the OHT feet in early 2022, pre- this wide, this deadweight (etc.),” said Ramstad. “We went and paring for the start in Dogger Bank later that year. Meanwhile, said, “Do you think it’s possible to design a vessel that can install in the middle of 2020, while COVID raged and business uncer- monopiles in one day? And that includes the positioning, the tainty abounded, OHT went from “not being so interested in lowering of the monopiles, the piling, the transition piece instal- offshore wind turbine installation” to ordering a Wind Turbine lation, the bolting and grouting, and the sailing and the transit-

Installation Vessel (WTIV), again, on speculation with China ing and the loading time. So counting the time from [when] you

Merchant Heavy Industries, a contract which entered force in leave port until you’re back fully loaded and ready to leave again.”

November 2020 with a projected delivery in the middle of 2023. What resulted was a creative process to design a ship that is, “The end game for us would probably be to see at least two in a word, big and strong, to streamline the handling of founda-

Alfa Lifts and two jacket vessels for the turbine side, accompa- tions on deck while minimizing transit time from port to feld.

nied by the transportation vessels that we currently have. And with this, we intend to become a leader in the offshore wind space for transport and installation services.”

DOGGER BANK

As a newcomer in the installation business, OHT had to then convince one of the most demanding clients in the market that it, as an organization, would be able to step up in regards to capacity, competence, systems, and all that’s required to be a proper contractor, that the concept of its feet would work the way it’s intended. And in regards to Dogger Bank, there will be little wiggle room for error, as it is a “big scale project, where you’re looking at installing 190 monopiles and transition pieces in the frst two phases over a relatively compact sched- ule,” said Ramstad. “Alfa Lift effciently transports and installs over medium distances, regardless of where you end up with your fabrication in Northern Europe. So, all the way down to

Northern Spain, Alfa Lift can go to the fabricator, pick up the foundations, and go directly to the wind farm site and install.

Whereas the competitors would rely on separate transportation, intermediate storage, reloading, and then going feld to install.”

While Alfa Lift is a large and identifable manifestation of the OHT proposition, Ramstad said it’s not only about steel, cranes and ships. “That’s just a small part of it,” he said. “We

Source: Ulstein 38 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM