Offshore installation firm DEME Offshore has signed a contract with Sequalize to deploy its HC1100 active heave compensator on the first commercial scale wind farm installation project in the USA, Vineyard Wind, to transfer wind turbine components to and from heaving supply vessels.
"The HC1100 is currently the largest active heave compensator in the world. As a Balanced Heave Compensator (BHC), it can compensate a vessel’s heave motions and safely quick-lift loads up to 1100mT, although being battery powered," Seaqualize said.
"Seaqualize and DEME Offshore have been working together on developing a novel tool, enabling a Jones Act compliant feeder-barge concept. To lift delicate wind turbine components from feeder-barges to an installation vessel while being offshore is a complicated operation. This type of operation, which needs to be done safely, efficiently, frequently and often in harsh weather conditions, requires a new, next generation lifting tool," Seaqualize said.
DEME Offshore has a contract to transport and install 62 wind turbine generators for the Vineyard Wind 1 project, the first commercial-scale offshore wind installation in the United States. Each turbine will be transported in components from the supply harbor to DEME’s installation vessel, the Sea Installer.
“We contracted Seaqualize to de-risk the Vineyard Wind project: their solution is a novel, but realistic method to safely transfer the delicate components, minimizing the risk of damage and delays. We think this is how Feeder Barge operations should be done going forward” – Glenn Carton, Project Director, Vineyard Wind, DEME.
The HC1100 is scheduled for delivery in March 2023.
Sequalize said that "the HC1100 has an improved design to better serve the offshore wind market. It has an increased load capacity of 1100mT (equivalent to nearly 7 jumbo jets), required to balance turbine components of the 15MW generation.
"It can reach higher quick-lift speeds and has a longer stroke to handle the larger motions of smaller supply vessels. It also offers a single lift point for operational efficiency.
The new design further minimizes dynamic load fluctuations impacting the crane and offers passive safety procedures. In addition, Seaqualize’s in-house developed ‘follow-mode’ allows the full load to match the movements of the target vessel. If required, quick-lift operations are fully reversible."