A following wind
Offshore Marine Management is expanding and diversifying in a rapidly growing market. Jane Bordenave speaks to operations manager Eckhard Bruckschen about what lies ahead, both for the company and for the offshore renewable energy market globally.
ItÔÇÖs an exciting time for Offshore Marine Management (OMM). Founded in 2003, the company was initially a specialist personnel agency for the sub-marine cable industry. Just one year later, it had become increasingly involved in the offshore renewable energy market and had also begun to diversify into the management of vessels, as well as working on the cables themselves. Most recently, OMM has opened an office in Bremen, Germany, and also plans to establish a base in Singapore next year to cater for the growing Asian market.
The opening of the Bremen office, thanks in part to winning contracts with E.ON Netz Offshore (now called Transpower) for the BorWin 1 cable route, will help the company better serve the German market, as well as providing it with even closer links to its clients around the North Sea and Baltic Sea.
OMM also played a multi-faceted role in Alpha Ventus, which will be GermanyÔÇÖs first offshore wind farm. When completed, it will produce 220 gigawatt hours of energy annuallyÔÇöthe equivalent consumption of about 50,000 three-person households per year. ÔÇ£We have supplied personnel not only to the installation companies, but also to cable manufacturers like NSW in Germany,ÔÇØ explains OMMÔÇÖs operations manager Eckhard Bruckschen. ÔÇ£We are also working with them on another offshore wind park, BARD Offshore 1, and similar projects.ÔÇØ
Even though it may work with the same client on several projects, as with NSW, OMM still takes a tailored approach to each contract. ÔÇ£The philosophy at Offshore Marine Management is that we want to offer equipment and solutions based on what is best for the project and not just what is on my equipment list,ÔÇØ says Bruckschen. ÔÇ£We try to know the client and see exactly what it is they are dealing with on a project-by-project basis. This attitude reduces costs for the client and also increases their confidence.ÔÇØ
Although the renewable energy industry as a whole wasnÔÇÖt hit very hard by the recession, there are another two factors that could affect the company. The first, and potentially the biggest, is the ageing work force and subsequent skills gap. One of the biggest problems for OMM, and for the industry in general, is a lack of both skilled workers and investment in training. ÔÇ£In 2001, when the sub-marine telecoms industry collapsed, a lot of people with the necessary skills just walked away,ÔÇØ says Bruckschen. ÔÇ£Then, in 2006 to 2007, that industry was starting to slowly recover. When this happened, some of the older, skilled workers came back, but there is now a skills gap of at least 10 years that needs to be filled.
ÔÇ£Companies want to take on younger workers in their twenties, but at the same time, they want them to have lots of experience and it makes no sense.ÔÇØ┬á
Part of the problem is that training costs money, which must be weighed up against taking on older, experienced people who are already in the market. But as Bruckschen points out, in 10 yearsÔÇÖ time, many of these workers will retire, leaving a skills gap and a loss of knowledge that will have to be built up again from scratch. But OMM is working to combat this, having established its own academy and an annual apprenticeship scheme to train workers specifically in the skills needed to work in the offshore industry.
The second (and much less controllable) issue is the weather. The advantage of offshore is that there will never be a problem with lack of wind. ÔÇ£A lot of people ask, ÔÇÿbut what if there is no wind?ÔÇÖÔÇØ says Bruckschen, ÔÇ£but offshore, the wind is always blowing. This is, of course, one of the challenges if you are building a wind farm. You have to search for a place where there is wind.ÔÇØ
But the weather can affect the wind farms in other ways. ÔÇ£In winter, it is not advisable to install wind farms or cables, but, due to earlier setbacks, it is sometimes unavoidable. We currently have a situation where the BorWin 1 interconnector is only half-laid, but they have bad weather on site,ÔÇØ explains Bruckschen. ÔÇ£To start joining, they need a window of about three to four days to complete it safely.
ÔÇ£Out there, you can get waves six or seven metres high, which will also prevent you from, for example, piling foundations into the ground.ÔÇØ But despite the potential for the weather being more than just a nuisance, big companies are still choosing to invest heavily.
An exciting development for OMM is currently taking place in its research and development section. Working with its UK and continental clients on their respective offshore wind farm projects, the company is trialling a new method of scour protection of the wind turbine foundations and the exposed sub-marine cable ends. The method reduces subsea works and is an individually designed solution for each foundation on the wind farm. As well as encouraging marine life, the company hopes that the method will reduce costs for the client when it comes to scour protection and cable maintenance (when a cable needs to be replaced). Under the old systemÔÇörock dumpingÔÇösections of the cable may have been left completely inaccessible and would consequently have to be replaced completely, with an additional J-tube or I-tube installation, at great expense. The new system will allow for easy removal, performance of repairs and then continued protection. Following a trial this winter, OMM hopes to extend this method to other projects.
It is clear that renewable energy is at the top of the agenda, not just for energy companies and those in the industry, but also for governments, businesses and the general public. By offering a variety of solutions in this area, from the everyday through to the potentially revolutionary, Offshore Marine Management has set itself right at the heart of this growing industry.
