The first contracted helicopter flights for servicing a UK offshore windfarm are set to begin at Greater Gabbard, following all of the project’s 140 turbines becoming operational last week.
Greater Gabbard, a 504MW wind farm off England’s east coast, is owned by a 50:50 joint venture of SSE and RWE. It began generating electricity from all of its 140 Siemens 3.6MW turbines on Friday 7 September.
Bond Air Services will in October begin running the first support contract of its kind in the UK, providing helicopter operation and maintenance (O&M) services to Greater Gabbard.
Bond Air Services' commercial manager for marine services, David Bond, said that projects using helicopters as part of their O&M strategy can expect to see improvements in overall productivity. When sea conditions prevent O&M operators from using vessels, access to turbines that need repairing can be delayed by days or even weeks.
Many of the Round 1 offshore projects currently operational in the UK, however, are too close to the shore and have too few turbines to warrant the cost of a dedicated helicopter service. This is changing fast, as the larger Round 2 projects such as Greater Gabbard come on line.
"Our role at Greater Gabbard will be to support the delivery of technicians to the turbine nacelles by hoist," Bond told “uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç Offshore. "Vessels have access limitations associated with wave heights – we don’t have that problem," he added.
With 140 turbines, Greater Gabbard’s size makes having a helicopter as part of the O&M solution viable. "The project has a significant number of turbines and is quite a way from the service base," said Bond. "These turbines generate income, so any loss of revenue from a problem with one of them soon adds up."
.png)
.png)
