Monitoring Offshore Wind Farm Hollandse Kust Zuid
Project summary
As co-owner of offshore wind park Hollands Kust Zuid, it is crucial for Vattenfall to know exactly what the conditions of the seabed and subsea assets of the park are. To enable ongoing monitoring of the seabed and the scour conditions around the Inter Array Cable System (IAC), they needed high-resolution and high-quality bathymetry and backscatter data. That’s where we came in.
A CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENT
Navigating a big vessel such as Miranda around wind turbines can be challenging. Together with the client, we made an efficient line plan to execute this project. We paid attention to all factors that could form a potential risk (wind, current, etc.) to minimize the chance of potential navigational failures, without compromising area coverage. Collecting the data went so smoothly that we completed it in two-thirds of the scheduled time.
MIRANDA: EQUIPPED FOR HIGH-END SURVEY WORK
This project was executed with multi-purpose survey vessel Miranda. This vessel is the second in a series of “green” vessels from Van Laar Maritime, meaning that this vessel is very fuel efficient. Since the 1st of July this vessel is running on HVO100, making this set-up suitable for the most high-end survey work in the field. Miranda was built in 2016 and equipped with Tier 2 engines. At Deep, we have re-fitted her with all necessary survey equipment, such as a gondola, A-frame and mounting arrangements, to make her 100% survey ready.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CUSTOM TOOL
When the data was collected, we ran into a challenge. To determine depth of burial of the IAC, which was the clients’ main objective, we needed to compare the new data with as-built data from 2021. But this data was locked due to confidentiality. We organized a brainstorming session with our team to explore alternative ways to assist the client in determining the depth of burial. This resulted in creating a custom tool for this project. The tool extracted the ‘as built data’ anonymously out of a huge dataset, in such way that the depth of burial was effectively displayed in the final charts. This way, we were able to successfully finish the project.