Together with OIS Offshore Industrie Service GmbH, Green Wind Offshore carries out the scheduled servicing campaigns in the ARGE O&M DolWin3 project eleven times a year. The twelfth of these onshore and offshore campaigns is the expanded outage campaign as part of which the entire power connection system with the offshore converter platform DolWin gamma and the onshore substation Dörpen West as well as the two offshore wind farms Merkur and Borkum Riffgrund 2 in the German part of the North Sea is decommissioned and subjected to extensive checks and maintenance.

Olaf Wunderlich, Managing Director of Green Wind offshore GmbH, reports on the successful completion of this year’s outage campaign.

Green Wind is one of the few onshore project developers that ventures out to sea. The DolWin3 annual campaign is the highlight of the offshore campaign. That sounds like a very complex project …

Olaf: It is! And one thing is clear: For 2022, the current campaign has been completed successfully. Our client GE is satisfied and praised our flexibility. And we certainly need this flexibility at sea, in addition to all the technical expertise and meticulous preparation. If a component on an offshore platform is defective, you can’t simply have a new one delivered. Logistics, material procurement, and personnel organization are extremely complex. While the monthly campaigns usually go according to plan, some unforeseen event always happens during the outage campaigns to which we have to respond quickly and with precision. The project management team receives additional support from our 24/7 control room greenwind control which ensures that on-site service runs smoothly.

What exactly do you examine? And who is involved?

Olaf: In addition to the monthly maintenance activities, we service all high-voltage components. This is possible only once a year when everything is switched off. Detailed checks of the auxiliary and supporting systems in the affected areas and systems, from fire extinguishers to cranes, are also performed. For example, an average of six service technicians (electricians and mechanics) plus team leader are involved in the monthly offshore campaigns. During this year’s outage campaign, there were more than 40! This year, Rico Kaatz from the Project Management team of Green Wind Offshore assisted the team leader on site (photo).

The service technicians on site are employees from OIS. What is the task of Green Wind?

Olaf: Green Wind Offshore takes care of the preparation and follow-up with all the exact daily schedules and maintenance activities. We prepare the necessary permits to work, check certifications, prepare the work instructions for each individual activity, prepare the corresponding risk assessments in cooperation with OIS, and write up daily and weekly reports. Green Wind monitors the logistics, plans and organizes tool procurement and equipment, coordinates external companies and specialists. At the end of the major campaign, we submit the final report and the evaluation to our client GE as well as the operating company, TenneT. The safety and functionality of the entire wind farm depend on this. Our detail work already starts more than four months before the actual measure. After the campaign is before the campaign.

And last, but not least: Hats off to what our guys do here and thank you to Fabio, Rico, Javier, Steffen, as well as Enrico and his entire control room team.

The interview was conducted by Anke Kuckuck.