Mammoet’s Ring Crane Lifts 24/7 with Extreme Tidal Range at the Port of Nigg

Offshore wind projects taking place in macrotidal environments, such as around the UK, must deal with water level changes of more than four meters every six hours. This extreme tidal range is difficult to compensate for using ballasting, so projects that require load-in or load-out of large jackets are delayed when waters are too high or low, leaving the installation vessel waiting.

This was the challenge facing Global Energy Group at the Port of Nigg, Scotland; marshalling facility for Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm. Working years in advance, Mammoet proposed a large ring crane solution that would allow manoeuvres to take place regardless of the tidal conditions, and so reduce the downtime of offshore assets and help to deliver first power as scheduled.

Seagreen will be the world’s deepest fixed bottom offshore wind farm, lying further from the coast where winds are stronger and more reliable. As a result, its 114 wind turbine foundation jackets stand 95m tall, and are robust enough to support new 10MW variants of Vestas turbine. Once it becomes operational in 2023, the facility will be capable of powering two-thirds of Scotland’s population.

From day one, the challenge was on to find a marshalling methodology that would keep the project’s most critical asset – its installation vessel – as productive as possible. To do this, the team would need to look beyond the jacket handling scope and determine how all scopes could be optimized to protect the critical path of the installation campaign.

To find out how Mammoet met the challenges and keeps the port operational 24/7 whatever the state of the extreme tidal range – with full text, video and all photographs follow this link:

Mammoet’s Ring Crane Lifts 24/7 with Extreme Tidal Range at the Port of Nigg – Full Report with Photographs and  Video – Heavy Lift News

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