| Work Detail |
The Netherlands-based Conbit has been awarded the contract for the supply and commissioning of an Impressed Current Cathodic Protection (ICCP) system at the SylWin alpha offshore converter station, operated by the Dutch/German transmission system operator (TSO) TenneT. The scope of work includes the design, delivery, and above-water installation of the ICCP system, along with all major construction components. To execute this project, Conbit has partnered with Deepwater Europe, which will supply its RetroBuoy ICCP system. The solution is specifically designed to provide reliable and long-lasting cathodic protection for the substation’s jacket structure, ensuring a target operational lifetime of at least 25 years for all components, said Conbit. Innovation in wind energy has been one of the main pillars driving the upscale of the sector, enabling better components, larger and stronger turbines, faster and more cost-effective logistics, but what about its integration into tenders? Innovative approaches in tender designs can have a major impact on facilitating a successful rollout of the sector. According to Ireen Geerbex, Market Development Director NL at Swedish multinational offshore wind developer Vattenfall, one of the key elements might be extending the five-year deadline from obtaining a permit to constructing an offshore wind farm to seven years. It has been exemplary of how tenders in the Netherlands in the past few years invited the market to come up with solutions that are much needed to address certain challenges, bottlenecks or ecological impacts, allowing co-location of innovation which is a crucial milestone in getting them to commercial scale, Geerbex said at Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference (OEEC). Although the Dutch system is a very strong fundament that paves the way toward the future, and can serve as a good example for many countries that are still in the very early days of shaping their offshore wind roadmaps and tender systems, market conditions have been challenging and there is a risk of being blinded by previous success and the assumption that the road can continue in the same way may be wrong. According to Geerbex, strong adaptations are needed for future tender designs: “First of all is the flexibility of realization. In the Dutch system, there is a five-year window after winning a project until the deadline of realization. That is a really short time for a really big project, really far offshore, in a market that is struggling with the availability of manufacturing and installation capacity, and equipment. So I would argue for extending the five-year window to a seven-year one, which would allow developers to optimize the actual installation and construction windows to reduce risk and thereby also cost for the realization of offshore wind farms.” |
