TenneT’s new offshore maintenance cooperation model
The transmission system operator aims to share information and ideas with wind farm, and oil and gas operators, to gauge interest in a collaborative model.
Image for illustration purposes.
The Netherlands, Arnhem: TenneT wants to jointly house management and maintenance services of offshore infrastructure in a new model. The transmission system operator aims to share information and ideas with wind farm, and oil and gas operators, to gauge interest in a collaborative model.
A lot of new infrastructure at sea has been realized in recent years, and in the coming future, more wind farms, offshore connections, and other installations will be developed in the North Sea. By 2031, TenneT expects to have realized 17 offshore grid connections and over 21 GW of offshore wind capacity, which will require regular maintenance. Materials, personnel, installations, and vessels for maintenance and management are scarce. However, with cooperation and resource sharing, they can be used more efficiently.
This growth in offshore development brings a need for operations and maintenance services. Oil and gas operators have already partly found each other in forms of cooperation. Many wind farm operators arrange this themselves or procure these services separately. However, resources are becoming increasingly scarce, and vessels cannot always be used efficiently, resulting in long waiting times for maintenance.
TenneT aims to achieve greater efficiency by sharing the deployment of vessels, personnel, and materials. This could save money by jointly organizing services on a larger scale and ensure a more sustainable way of organizing work with less environmental impact and increase safety at sea.
Source: TenneT