• State-of-the-art offshore Walk to Work service vessel
• Vessel’s maiden voyage for the Galloper project this Autumn 
• Innovative design and dynamic positioning technology

innogy, the company leading the construction of the Galloper offshore wind farm, will be deploying the newly built Bibby WaveMaster1 Offshore Service Vessel this autumn.  It will be the vessel’s first significant charter, and the first time innogy have used a Walk to Work offshore service vessel in UK waters during the commissioning phase of a project.  The UK registered vessel has been built by Damen on behalf of its owners Bibby Marine Services who will take ownership of it in August.

Toby Edmonds, Galloper Project Director, said:  “Much of our offshore commissioning activity will take place in the North Sea during the challenging autumn and winter months.  The vessel design includes a built for purpose hull and dynamic positioning technology.  This will allow our workforce to exploit weather windows in higher sea states to access and carry out work on the turbines and the substation.  The specialist Walk To Work Uptime gangway and multi stop elevator will also enable the team to access offshore assets in wave heights of  up to two metres.

He added: “Unlike traditional crew transfer vessels, the Bibby WaveMaster1 enables us to be offshore for up to four weeks at a time.  Whilst we will have a complement including crew and technicians of around forty, the vessel can accommodate up to ninety.”

The Bibby WaveMaster1 was chartered by James Fisher Marine Services, Galloper’s main offshore marine services contractor, following a selection process, which has secured the vessel for a three month contract with options to extend to support the offshore commissioning phase of the works.

Martin Sisley, Managing Director of Renewables at James Fisher & Sons plc said:

“James Fisher Marine Services is pleased to further support the Galloper project by securing Bibby WaveMaster 1 to support the commissioning activity on the wind farm.

The construction of the Galloper project, which is expected to be complete by Spring 2018, is being led on behalf of the project partners by innogy SE.  Once operational the project will generate enough power for up 336,000 homes.

Energy predicted to be generated by the proposal is derived using wind speeds monitored in the local area and correlating to suitable reanalysis weather data providing longer term data. The calculations are based on an installed capacity of up to 336MW.  The energy capture predicted and hence derived homes equivalent or emissions savings figures may change as further data are gathered.  Equivalent homes supplied is based on an annual electricity consumption per home of 4500 kWh. This figure is supported by recent domestic electricity consumption data available from The Digest of UK Energy Statistics and household figures from the UK Statistics Authority.