Mr. Bernhardt, what does an Offshore Installation Manager actually do?
While Martin Lehnhoff as the Project Manager and Hans-Christoph Brumberg as the Installation Manager bear the overall responsibility, I coordinate the four disciplines that comprise the overall construction of Butendiek out at sea: foundations, transformer substation, cabling and the wind turbines,
... but the latter are under full responsibility of the manufacturer Siemens who is also fully responsible for their installation?
Yes, that is correct. We at wpd coordinate and support the installation and only interfère if there are
technical or logistical difficultés or problems with the schedule. By comparison with the first offshore
wind farms, the workflows are rather trouble-free and processes hâve been further improved. Just to
give one example: the tower is no longer transported to the construction site in three segments as it
used to be; now it is being fully assembled in the port of Esbjerg which means it takes only one lift to
place it on the foundation structure. This saves a lot of time and money. As a resuit, eight 75 métré long
towers are loaded onto the Bold Tern at the Esbjerg quayside and transported to the construction site
togetherwith the nacelles.
Where do Siemens manufacture the towers?
In Denmark. Siemens began assembling the éléments for the towers in the port of Esbjerg around three
months before the start of the first installation trip. The assembly requires a-great deal of space. The
biggest challenge for Siemens lies in storing the components for towers, turbines with hub and associated rotor blades in such a way that they can be quickly called off. Especially as this requires a lot of
storage space.
How is the rotor fïtted at sea?
Siemens does not fit a complété rotor star but mounts each blade individually to the nacelle. This operation can be performed up to a wind speed of twelve métrés per second which corresponds to six on
the Beaufort scale. By comparison: when the turbines in the test field of alpha ventus were installed,
it was only possible to lift the rotor up to wind speeds of six to eight métrés. To this extent, working at
twelve métrés per second is certainly challenging and makes the procedure fast and efficient.
Where is your actual place of work during the construction phase?
□ uring the construction phase, I work in Bremen from time to time but mainly you will find me in the
wpd project office in Havneby. The small Danish port on the island of Rome is our base port from where
spécial vessels take our own people and other personnel to the construction site. As the Offshore Site
Installations Manager, I frequently spend a whole week at sea during the construction phase and sometimes even longer. For example, I spent ten days on site when the transformer substation was installed.
By the way: it was erected in exactly the time frame that we had envisaged around one and half years
57
While Martin Lehnhoff as the Project Manager and Hans-Christoph Brumberg as the Installation Manager bear the overall responsibility, I coordinate the four disciplines that comprise the overall construction of Butendiek out at sea: foundations, transformer substation, cabling and the wind turbines,
... but the latter are under full responsibility of the manufacturer Siemens who is also fully responsible for their installation?
Yes, that is correct. We at wpd coordinate and support the installation and only interfère if there are
technical or logistical difficultés or problems with the schedule. By comparison with the first offshore
wind farms, the workflows are rather trouble-free and processes hâve been further improved. Just to
give one example: the tower is no longer transported to the construction site in three segments as it
used to be; now it is being fully assembled in the port of Esbjerg which means it takes only one lift to
place it on the foundation structure. This saves a lot of time and money. As a resuit, eight 75 métré long
towers are loaded onto the Bold Tern at the Esbjerg quayside and transported to the construction site
togetherwith the nacelles.
Where do Siemens manufacture the towers?
In Denmark. Siemens began assembling the éléments for the towers in the port of Esbjerg around three
months before the start of the first installation trip. The assembly requires a-great deal of space. The
biggest challenge for Siemens lies in storing the components for towers, turbines with hub and associated rotor blades in such a way that they can be quickly called off. Especially as this requires a lot of
storage space.
How is the rotor fïtted at sea?
Siemens does not fit a complété rotor star but mounts each blade individually to the nacelle. This operation can be performed up to a wind speed of twelve métrés per second which corresponds to six on
the Beaufort scale. By comparison: when the turbines in the test field of alpha ventus were installed,
it was only possible to lift the rotor up to wind speeds of six to eight métrés. To this extent, working at
twelve métrés per second is certainly challenging and makes the procedure fast and efficient.
Where is your actual place of work during the construction phase?
□ uring the construction phase, I work in Bremen from time to time but mainly you will find me in the
wpd project office in Havneby. The small Danish port on the island of Rome is our base port from where
spécial vessels take our own people and other personnel to the construction site. As the Offshore Site
Installations Manager, I frequently spend a whole week at sea during the construction phase and sometimes even longer. For example, I spent ten days on site when the transformer substation was installed.
By the way: it was erected in exactly the time frame that we had envisaged around one and half years
57