We know that in the real world it isn’t always possible for vessels and cranes to work around the clock. Many limitations are in place preventing this from happening, some of which are in the developer’s control, but most of which aren’t. It may be that the logistic is simply unavailable to rent in a given time period, or maybe it is more economical not to rent due to reduced need or escalating costs. Local regulations may also be a limiting factor, meaning that in a real-world scenario work at the port/base can only take place during strict working hours (e.g. 8am – 8pm). Personnel working hours will of course also have an impact on whether the logistic can be utilised. And finally, expected environmental situations may place restrictions on operations, such as whale migration periods and monsoon and hurricane seasons.
New functionality for more realistic case-building of wind project logistics
It is now possible to model all these anticipated scenarios in Construction Design and O&M Design. Users are able to model granular periods of time (days of the week, hours of a day/week, excluding weekends etc.) which will be especially useful for local law restrictions and personnel working hour availability to crew vessels and man cranes. Users are also able to model the non-use of logistics for longer periods of time such as whole weeks and months, which will be more fitting for vessel hire and for modelling expected environmental restrictions.
Shoreline believes this improved functionality will allow users to more accurately determine project costs, allow them to identify when wind project logistics will be required with greater accuracy, and will allow them to pinpoint the exact forecast commissioning date of a project more accurately. For O&M modellers the PBA and TBA will be closer to real-life availability.
Onshore wind logistics scenario: Crane restrictions in construction
In the following example the onshore crane is limited to only work between the hours of 8am – 8pm due to presumed local regulations. When date/time restrictions are not set, it is assumed that the crane will work around the clock, so this change delays the assembly completion date by 10 days.
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Offshore wind logistics scenario: Jack-up vessel restrictions in O&M
In the following example we are limiting the time a jack-up vessel can be in operation (e.g. to conduct blade replacement) to the months of October-July to avoid peak whale migration time off the US coastline. We can see that the PBA and TBA losses are affected by this inability to access the turbines for two months of the year, as anticipated.
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Ready to model your whales?
The Date/time Restrictions feature is now available for use on Construction Design and O&M Design. Users wishing for more details on how to model this for themselves should check out this article on the Knowledge Base.
You can also join our Release Webinar about Date/time Restrictions on Wednesday 18 October at 10:00 AM CET.
Register to learn more about:
- What is new in Design, and what is coming
- Creating a time restriction
- Appling a time restriction
- How time restrictions work
You can sign up for the webinar here: How to use date/time restrictions for Construction and O&M Design
The date/time restrictions functionality is available for both Construction and O&M Design
