Far offshore operation and maintenance vessel concept development and optimisation

The purpose of the project is to develop a technology qualification strategy and methods for Statkraft to evaluate new vessel and access concepts for offshore wind farms from a technical and economical perspective. The technical qualification determines t he operational criteria for using the concepts in offshore conditions and takes also into account HMS aspects. The economical evaluation is based on decision support models that analyse how the concepts can reduce the cost of energy from a life cycle pers pective. Doggerbank will serve as test case for this project and the most central R&D challenges are: - Technical analysis vessel concepts - Development vessel fleet optimisation model - Development life cycle profit model The technical assessment of th e vessel concepts evaluates motions and loads with respect to waves, wind and current and requires advanced computer simulations. As a result operational criteria for the concepts will be established. These criteria will serve as an input for the vessel f leet optimization model and the life cycle profit model. The models are based on mathematical optimization methods and Monte Carlo simulation to consider uncertainties in the input data. Based on the characteristics of the vessel concepts, the optimizatio n model will calculate the most cost efficient fleet size and mix of vessels. This result will be used in the life cycle profit model, where the concepts will be analysed further to evaluate the effect on cost of energy and to assess the main cost drivers and sensitivities of the results. The final project results will be implemented in Statkraft's business processes by defining a technology qualification strategy, to support safe and cost effective operation of future far offshore wind farms. For the ve ssel concept innovators, the project will serve as an opportunity for early integration of customer requirements as well as an opportunity to systematically verify and optimise vessel concept