On to Dubai for North Sea Data

Magazine | 17-10-2021 | Herman Heringa

With MIVSP, Rijkswaterstaat collects a wealth of data from the North Sea and makes it available to interested parties—from shipping, fishing, and aviation to meteorologists, ecologists, and wind farm owners. This way, each party does not have to install its own expensive measurement systems at sea. MIVSP installs the necessary sensors on transformer platforms at offshore wind farms—the "sockets" that connect the parks to the onshore power grid. Grid operator TenneT builds these platforms on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, which deploys offshore wind farms to make the Dutch energy supply more sustainable.

First Schiedam, now Dubai

With European tenders, TenneT always looks for the most suitable party to build a transformer platform. For the first two, for the wind energy areas Borssele I and II, they ended up close to home. The contract went to the Dutch company HSM Offshore, which built the platforms at their yard in Schiedam. An ideal location for cooperation with MIVSP: they have their test center in Stellendam, just 40 kilometers away. For the next area, Hollandse Kust Zuid, it is quite different. This time the British multinational Petrofac won the bid thanks to a low price and decided to build the Alpha and Beta platforms in shipyards in the United Arab Emirates. The jackets, the steel structure with which they stand in the sea, were built in Ras Al Khaimah and the platforms themselves in the "Dry Docks" of Dubai.

Install as Much as Possible at the Yard

"It’s best to install as much equipment and sensors as possible at the yard," says René de Vreeden, General Technical Manager at MIVSP. "Everything you still have to do offshore later takes much more time and money. For example, if we now have to go to one of the Borssele platforms, we leave at 6 a.m. from Vlissingen by a small boat and return at 6 p.m. But during that time, we have only worked effectively for 5 hours. The remaining 7 hours are spent on travel, briefing, and safety measures. In this case, it is cheaper to have the installation done as much as possible in Dubai, even if you take into account everything that comes with such an international adventure. In principle, Petrofac performs that installation, but we have to check if it is done correctly."

Ensuring Performance for Stakeholders

That control is important, confirms Hans Bogaert. As Location Interface Manager, he is responsible for harmonizing the expectations of the various involved parties, resulting in an acceptable timeline and finances for everyone. "Stakeholders such as the KNMI expect certain performances. Then you must ensure it really works. And installing our sensors is a bit more complicated than assembling an Ikea package. We don’t need to be present on the shop floor continuously, like TenneT, but we do need to be there at crucial moments. In between, we brainstorm in remote meetings every week. It has to be balanced. We have only a small team, and people in Dubai cannot perform their tasks in the Netherlands."

Preperation is essential

To keep the on-site deployment limited, good preparation is essential, says Engineering Interface Manager Jos Hendrikse. "To start with, Petrofac made a 3D model. A digital mock-up of the entire platform that you can walk through virtually and zoom in on to the millimeter. All MIVSP sensors are modeled here according to our instructions because this model is the basis for the actual construction of the platform.

In addition, at the Offshore Expertise Center in Stellendam, we have a 1-to-1 copy of the mast where our sensors will be placed. We assembled everything there to test it. Then we disconnected all the cables and took the sensors to the shipyard. There, the installers only need to pull the cables through the platform and place the 19" cabinets in the so-called shared service room. On-site, we test whether everything is properly connected and aligned. For example, once we found that a few retractable sensor holders could not retract. We are there for such things."

Exporting According to Regulations

Bringing the sensors to the yard was much more complicated than taking a truck to Schiedam, emphasizes Bogaert. "Transporting items to Dubai means exporting, with associated regulations. For example, we need radars, but of course, you can also use those for other purposes, the so-called dual use. Therefore, we didn’t send some components to Dubai and made sure there were clear certificates for all other components, with information about the production location, etc. We had to deal with local authorities ourselves and answer all the customs questions. It was a big job, but luckily it all went well."

Combating Climate Impact

Once in Dubai, many challenges followed. De Vreeden: "You go from a temperate maritime climate to a desert climate. With temperatures up to 50 degrees Celsius. You have to take that into account to avoid damaging the equipment. For example, we had a box built to protect our lidar—a sensor that measures wind speed at different heights—from the bright sun and dust. We also monitored the temperature continuously. For such things, our presence is important. Without us, the people at Petrofac wouldn’t have done that. Not out of unwillingness, but lack of knowledge."

COVID-19 is causing restrictions

"The climate also significantly impacts your own body," adds Hendrikse. "Especially with all the safety clothing on, you can’t dissipate heat. You can't last more than an hour without air conditioning. And then we also wore masks because of corona. COVID-19 brought many restrictions anyway. At one point, the Emirates closed their borders, while many workers—cheap labor from India and Pakistan—were in their home countries. As a result, half of the staff couldn’t return."

Trust Bridges Cultural Differences

-The cultural background of those workers is the next challenge. Bogaert: "These people are very service-oriented and never say no. But sometimes they mean it. To find out what they really think, you need to build trust slowly. If they feel at home, they express themselves more. This is necessary: in team meetings, you can’t do without their input. It’s crucial that everyone at MIVSP communicates in the same way and that you work together as equal partners. For example, not just pointing out the other party’s mistakes, but asking how to solve them together."

Experience Saves Time and Money

Despite all the challenges, MIVSP's work in Dubai has been successful, with hardly any extra work. Experience plays an important role in this. De Vreeden: "We have gone through a tremendous learning curve from Borssele to Hollandse Kust Zuid. At other parties, you often see the team change from platform to platform; we move forward and take all the lessons learned with us. This way, we work more efficiently and save costs. We also standardize a lot. The platforms are always slightly different, but we keep our sensors as uniform as possible. We also build everything modularly. If something breaks, you only need to replace the module. That saves a lot of valuable offshore time during the maintenance phase. And that maintenance phase lasts much longer than the construction phase."

Ready to Collect North Sea Data

For the platforms from Dubai, the transition from the construction phase to the maintenance phase will not take long. The jackets were already placed in the North Sea in July. The platforms themselves will follow soon. According to the current schedule, the first one, Hollandse Kust Zuid Alpha, will depart from Dubai on November 11. The journey ahead is enormous: through the Suez Canal, across the Mediterranean, and then along the coast of Portugal, France, and Belgium to the North Sea. By the end of this year or early next year, both platforms should be on the jackets and contribute substantially to the sustainability of the Dutch energy supply. With the sensors on the platforms of Borssele and Hollandse Kust Zuid, MIVSP's data collection will cover half of the Dutch coastline.