UK: Sembmarine SLP Ltd carry out UK first

The Engineering specialists have been working with Siemens Transmission and Distribution Ltd (STDL) to build an offshore facility for the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm owned by Statoil, Statkraft and Masdar.  The wind farm will be located 20 miles of the coast of Cromer in North Norfolk and when operational will have the capacity to power approximately 420,000 homes in the UK.

The facility comprises of a topside and jacket structure, the latter of which uses suction bucket technology, a first for a substation in UK waters, with around 6m of the 9m bucket height being sunk into the sea bed on installation.

In early March SLP took the project another step closer to completion by upending and jacking up the jacket.  The jack up operation was the first of its kind in the UK and involved jacking up the 954 tonne (approx.) jacket to 14m high using a Mega Jack 800 jacking system provided and operated by global heavylift specialists ALE.  The suction buckets were positioned under each of the jacket legs using SPMT trailers to manoeuvre them into place.  The Mega Jack 800 then lowered the jacket and held it in place whilst the suction buckets were welded to the jacket by SLP operatives.

Matthew Wooltorton, SLP Project Manager, said: “It has been a particularly complex operation to integrate the suction bucket technology into the Jacket whilst also considering the construction constraints of the project.  The roll-up event was a culmination of high level engineering and design works carried out by SLP and ALE and close collaborative working with STDL to get the jacket ready for planned sail away in May.”

John Davidson, STDL Project Manager, said: “I would like to acknowledge the tremendous efforts displayed by the team in reaching this important milestone in the Project.  Whilst under enormous pressure they worked tirelessly around the clock without compromising on Safety or Quality. This was a good day for the project and the team should be proud of their achievement, well done”.