EchoBolt and Worley have established a partnership to transform integrity management in offshore wind.
Bringing together the sector focused delivery capability and engineering competency of Worley, in combination with advanced specialist technologies from EchoBolt, will deliver an unparalleled service for operators and owners of wind farms to manage their long-term asset integrity whilst driving down costs.
Wind farm inspection and maintenance regimes are currently predominantly driven by maintenance plans prescribed at the point of installation by manufacturers.
These routines are typically based on fixed time intervals and are seldom optimised for assets operating in different commercial contexts and at different periods of asset life.
A sophisticated approach to managing asset risk through-life with proportionate targeted maintenance interventions can yield significant savings for wind turbine operators.
“This partnership presents an extraordinary opportunity for EchoBolt to expand the impact of our well proven technology across the wind sector.
Not only do Worley bring industry leading resources and site delivery capability, but their ability to incorporate the management of structural bolted connections into a wholistic approach to wind farm integrity will create significant value for our customers.”
Pete Andrews, Managing Director, EchoBolt
Partnership Case Study
Wind Industry Status Quo:
The annual cost of retightening bolted connections is £3,863 – £4,133 per turbine (Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, 2021).
With 2,297 operational offshore wind turbines in the UK (RenewableUK), this represents a cost to the UK sector exceeding £9M per year.
Integrated integrity management:
Assessment of asset criticality and risk
Selection of inspection strategy and intervals
Integration of inspections with existing asset maintenance
Analysis of results to update live asset health overview
Partnership Delivery Model:
For a typical wind farm, ultrasonic bolt inspection for condition monitoring is completed alongside existing statutory inspections reducing the overall cost per turbine of bolt inspection by over 75%.
“The integration of well proven advanced inspection technologies, such as those offered by EchoBolt, is integral to Worley’s vision for the wind sector. We believe Echobolt’s leading technology, combined with Worley’s long history of offshore engineering, asset management along and our experienced offshore technicians, unlocks opportunities to reduce the cost of bolt inspections, improve safety, improve assurance and ultimately increase value.”
Steve Hillier, Director of Asset Management, Worley
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