- Floating home for Triton Knoll’s UK offshore construction team makes port at Grimsby
- Two-weeks rotation will generate activity for local services as teams of 45 swap places.
Meet the UK construction management team living and working offshore around the clock, to build the state-of-the-art Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm project.
The team is permanently based onboard the service operations vessel ‘Esvagt Froude’ and will be part of a team of up to 45 UK project experts who are managing the installation of the entire project, safely and on time.
It’s the first time innogy, which is managing the construction of the project on behalf of its partners(1), has established its team offshore rather than at an onshore location, and says the move will improve the efficiency of the project delivery.
Every two weeks, the team of construction, health & safety and marine operations coordinators will return to port to rotate with colleagues from across the project, who will head offshore in their place.
The vessel and crew rotation will all take place out of Grimsby’s Offshore Construction Coordination Base, in Royal Dock, and will spark a wave of intense dockside activity for both the construction team and the fleet of local support services required to prepare and restock the vessel for its next trip. During the early stages alone, the dock will be managing up to 90 Triton Knoll personnel, as two specialist teams swap places for the next trip offshore. And as more vessels join the construction programme, that figure will increase.
‘Esvagt Froude’ has already made its first visit to the port and complete its first rotations. The vessel features an industry leading “walk to work” system and will continue to operate for the duration of the construction works. The vessel is supported by Isle of Wight company Seacat Services, which is providing two crew transfer vessels for specialist crew transfer and logistical support, which are also operating out of Grimsby.
Throughout construction, the wind farm project is continuing to support the ongoing development of the domestic supply chain and is continuing with a local recruitment drive which will see the appointment of 70 long-term operations technicians.
Triton Knoll is a state-of-the-art, 857MW offshore wind farm, consisting of 90 of the world’s most powerful turbines, and representing a significant investment in new UK energy infrastructure. Located 32km off the Lincolnshire coast, Triton Knoll is the largest offshore wind farm currently in construction by innogy (1) and, once fully operational, will be capable generating renewable energy equivalent to the needs of over 800,000 typical UK households. (2)
ENDS
(1) Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm is owned by innogy (59%), J-Power (25%) and Kansai Electric Power (16%), with innogy managing the construction as well as the long term operation and maintenance works, on behalf of its project partners.
(2) Energy Generation – It is estimated that the average annual generation expected at the site could be equivalent to the approximate domestic needs of an expected minimum of 800,000 average UK households. Energy predicted to be generated by the proposal is derived using wind speeds monitored in the local area and correlated with long term reference data. The energy capture predicted, and hence derived homes equivalent figure may change as further data are gathered. Equivalent homes supplied is based on an annual electricity consumption per home of 4100 kWh. This figure is supported by recent domestic electricity consumption data available from The Digest of UK Energy Statistics and household figures from the UK National Statistics Authority.