Metocean Monitoring for Hywind Scotland

Partrac, a leading provider of offshore metocean solutions to industry and has been selected by Statoil to provide real-time wave and current measurement services for Hywind Scotland, the world’s first Floating Wind Farm. Partrac has been contracted for a minimum of 1 year (with multi-year contract extension options) to manage the deployment and maintenance of the equipment, and the delivery of real-time waves and current data, during the construction and testing phases of the development.

Partrac selected a Triaxys wave with currents buoy to provide reliable, robust real-time wave spectra, current profile and sea surface temperature data. Partrac designed a custom mooring solution, to survive the 50 year storm parameters at Buchan Deep, 25km off Peterhead.

The Hywind installation team requires regular and reliable wave and current data to inform safety critical operations. In addition the structural monitoring team require the data to assess performance of the of the Hywind turbines, spar buoys and moorings across the range of metocean conditions experienced in the Northern North Sea.  The metocean monitoring solution was deployed in mid-July, prior to the installation of the first Hywind turbines. The data is updated every 20mins to a secure operational website and used daily by the project team.

Sam Athey, Director at Partrac, comments, “Partrac are very active within the supply chain providing metocean monitoring for a range of major offshore wind projects, and thus we are delighted to be delivering these services for the worlds first floating wind farm. Hywind Scotland is the flagship project for floating wind globally, and we look forward to playing our part in the success of this project and the evolution of the floating wind industry”.

Hywind Scotland is the world’s ?rst ?oating offshore windfarm. Located at Buchan Deep, 25km offshore Peterhead in Scotland, the 30 megawatt (MW) farm is an estimated 2billion NOK / GBP 196 million project and will power around 20,000 households. The facility consists of ?ve 6MW wind turbines that are anchored to the sea?oor, existing in water depths of up to 95 – 120 metres. The lead operator is Statoil, who own 75%, with project partners Masdar who have a 25% stake in the project. Production is expected to start in late 2017.