DECOMMISSIONING AND INSTALLATION PROJECT AT LILLGRUND OFFSHORE WIND FARM

A Project by

HASEEB AHMAD

Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Gotland University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN WIND POWER PROJECT MANAGEMTENT June, 2012 Major Subject: "Energy Technology" Master of science in Wind Power Project Management 2012

DECOMMISSIONING AND INSTALLATION PROJECT AT LILLGRUND OFFSHORE WIND FARM

A Project by HASEEB AHMAD Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Gotland University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN WIND POWER PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Examiner:

Dr. Bahri Uzunoglu June, 2012

Major Subject: "Energy Technology"

ABSTRACT

The Lillgrund Offshore Wind Farm, located in a shallow area of resund between Sweden and

Denmark, suffered from a series of accidents, sea collisions and extreme winds. Fourteen out of

forty eight turbines have become dysfunctional along with substation and foundations. So the

objective of this project is to decommission the foundations, old turbines and substation and

install the new foundations, turbines and substation. The same turbine and substation technology

is used for reinstallation. In the first part of this report, decommissioning process and costs are

presented. In the second part, installation process and related costs are presented while in the last

part, total cost estimation is done by calculating net present value. Since there is a change in the

configuration, the substation which was located offshore in the original project is placed onshore

now. The comparison between both configurations is done by calculating net present value for

both. There is no difference in the estimated productions of wind turbines because these are

placed at their original spots. However, electrical losses are calculated because there is a change

of cable lengths. Microsoft Excel and WindPRO are used for calculations in this project while

Microsoft Project is used to make a project plan.

NOMENCLATURE

MW EAR CPM VDR SDR TDC OSV EIA EHA MVA GBP USD MWh NPV

Megawatt Erection All Risk Copenhagen Malm Port Vessel Day Rate Spread Day Rate Total Daily Cost Offshore Support Vessel Environmental Impact Assessment Environmental Hazard Assessment Mega Volt Ampere Great Britain Pound United States Dollar Megawatt hours Net Present Value

Contents
LIST OF FIGURES ....i LIST OF TABLES .ii Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 Decommissioning Proc ess .............................................................................. 2

Turbine Removal ........................................................................................................................ 3 Foundation and Transition Piece Removal ................................................................................. 4 Substation Removal .................................................................................................................... 5 Cable Removal ........................................................................................................................... 6 Scour Removal ........................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 3 Installation Process .......................................................................................... 7

Foundation Installation ............................................................................................................... 7 Turbine Installation .................................................................................................................... 8 Cable Installation ........................................................................................................................ 9 Substation Installation ................................................................................................................ 9 Scour Protection ....................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 4 Cost Esti mations ............................................................................................. 10

Capital Cost Estimation ............................................................................................................ 10 Total Cost Estimation ............................................................................................................... 11 Gantt chart for Project .............................................................................................................. 12 Chapter 5 Comparison between Confi gurations ....................................................... 13

VITA ........................................................................................................................................ 15 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 16

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Decommission of Turbines............................................................................................... 5 Table 2. Decommissioning of Foundations .................................................................................... 5 Table 3. Decommissioning of Substation ....................................................................................... 6 Table 4. Decommissioning of Cables ............................................................................................. 6 Table 5. Installation of Foundations ............................................................................................... 8 Table 6. Installation of Turbines..................................................................................................... 9 Table 7. Installation of Cable ......................................................................................................... 9 Table 8. Installation of Substation ................................................................................................ 13 Table 9. Comparison between Configurations ............................................................................. 14

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Shaded Area and Substation needs to be reinstalled ....................................................... 2 Figure 2. Gantt chart for the Project ............................................................................................. 12 Figure 3. New Configuration ........................................................................................................ 14

Chapter 1 Introduction
The Lillgrund offshore wind power plant is located in a shallow area of resund, 7 km off the coast of Sweden and 9 km off the coast of Denmark. The wind power plant is situated 7 km south of the resund Bridge, which connects Copenhagen and Malm. The offshore wind power plant is comprised of 48 wind turbines, each rated at 2.3 MW, resulting in a total wind power plant capacity of 110 MW. The wind power plant system also includes an offshore substation, an onshore substation and a 130 kV sea and land cable for connection to shore. (Joakim Jeppsson, Poul Erik Larsen, ke Larrson, 2009) The offshore wind farm started its operation in the beginning of 2008. The construction of Lillgrund took about 2 years and there is a warranty period for the turbines of 5 years. (Olsson, February 2009) For managing the construction risk, Vattenfall purchased an owner-controlled All risk insurance policy from Codan that covered both of the two main suppliers as well as all minor sub-contractors. For the construction phase of Lillgrund, Vattenfall signed an EAR insurance with additional third party liability insurance and marine insurance. The policy covered all construction work at Lillgrund, e.g. total construction costs for wind turbines, including foundations, cables and offshore substations. However, temporary buildings and off-site construction areas were not included, e.g. vessels. (Olsson, February 2009) Vettenfall did not sign any insurance policy which covers decommissioning costs. Generally decommissioning funds are used to provide security against environmental and decommissioning liabilities. In Netherlands requires that offshore owners/operators must pay monies into a segregated decommissioning fund for a minimum of 10 years, starting from the first year of operation of the project. The US Environmental Protection Agency Brownfield Superfund requires operators to

set aside monies through annual payments into a fund in order to accrue clean-up costs. (Offshore Renewable Energy Installation Decommissioning Study, Final Report)

Figure 1. Shaded Area and Substation needs to be reinstalled

Chapter 2 Decommissioning Process

The decommissioning process of an offshore wind farm takes place in well defined stages. Several important factors such as environmental protection, safety, cost, and strategic opportunity are kept in mind to conduct the decommissioning process. The developers work according to the available options depending upon regulatory approval and technical feasibility. (Department of Trade and Industry, 2006) The decommissioning process starts with the engineering planning and project management. The engineering personnel assess the work requirements and the project management team will report on the options available, including the scope of work that needs to be performed and how best to prepare the bid. The plan is developed for every stage in the project. Initially the process of market surveying and vessel selection is started. There are 14 wind turbines at Lillgrund offshore wind farm which have to be decommissioned along with one offshore substation.

Following are different steps to be performed for the decommissioning of the wind farm. The port selected for decommissioning process is the Port of Malm. Malm is located on the south western coast of Sweden and is the largest Swedish port in the area. The port is operated by Copenhagen Malm Port (CMP). The water depth is up to 13 meters alongside at normal waters. The port is accessible all year round and 24 hrs per day with no tidal or light restrictions. (The Port of Malm). The weather factor is taken as 0.8, discount factor is 0.85 of installation time and inflation factor for cable is 2.

Turbine Removal
The decommissioning process started with turbines removal. There are different methodologies that can be implemented to decommission the turbine. Number of lifts for each case vary

however the decommissioning process is not as delicate as commissioning so an option is selected keeping in view the disposal of wind turbines component. In the first step hub is removed, in the second step, nacelle is removed and finally tower is removed. There are three lifts required for this process. This option is selected because blades, nacelle and tower have to be disposed off to landfill and scrape separately but more importantly this option will reduce the cost due to optimum number of lifts. The jackup barge vessel is used along with two tugs one cargo barge and one crew boat. The operation started with the mobilization of vessel and cargo barge to the location. The cargo barge can lift seven turbines, so removal vessel (jackup barge) removed 7 turbines and cargo barge sent those turbines to onshore. The removal took place in two turns. The complete cost and operation calculation of the turbine removal is done using Microsoft Excel. However main results are shown in table1.

Foundation and Transition Piece Removal

After turbines removal, foundations and transition pieces are removed. The normal method to decommission the foundations is first to cut them and then lift. But in this case cutting is not required because monopiles are 5 meter long, these are only pulled outside. The operation started with getting inside the pile and setting up the jetting and pumping equipment. The mud present inside the monopiles is pumped out. The turbine cables at mud line are cut by the help of divers. The jackup barge is used as a removal vessel to lift the transition piece and foundation. Spread containing one barge, two tugs and crew boat is used. Cargo barge performed two rounds to put the foundations to the port while removal vessel remained on site throughout the operation. The complete cost and operation calculation of the foundation removal is done using Microsoft Excel. However main results are shown in table2.

Model Selected Vessels Spread Total removal time (hours) Vessel Day Rate (VDR, $/day) Spread Day Rate (SDR, $/day) Total Daily Cost (TDC, $/day) Total Project Cost (Cost, million $)
Table 1. Decommission of Turbines

Barge model Jackup Barge 1 cargo barge, 2 tugs, 1 crew boat 1365 64200 25250 89450 5.087469

Method Selected Vessel Spread Time to Remove a Foundation (hours) Time to Remove all Foundation (hours) Vessel Day Rate (VDR, $/day) Spread Day Rate (SDR, $/day) Total Daily Cost (TDC, $/day) Total Cost to Remove Foundations (million $)
Table 2. Decommissioning of Foundations

Single Vessel Method Jack up Barge 1 cargo barge, 2 tugs, 1 crew boat 11 154 64200 21750 85950 0.5515125

Substation Removal
The topside of substation removed first transformer requires no cut so it is lifted as a whole. The next step is to remove the monopile foundation for substation. It is done in the same way as turbine foundations and transported to the port. An OSV is used to support divers and cutting operations and OSV along with heavy-lift vessel remained on site throughout the operation. The

complete cost and operation calculation of the substation removal is done using Microsoft Excel. However main results are shown in table3. Total Time to Remove Substation (hours) Vessels Total day rate ($/day) Cost (million $)
Table 3. Decommissioning of Substation

80 OSV, Heavy lift vessel, barge spread 131000 0.436667

Cable Removal
Mostly power cables do not constitute a hazard but removal option is selected because these might interfere with commercial trawling or other activities. Only inner array cables for 14 turbines are removed with the help of OSV and spread barge. Inner array cables come in short segments so recovered in one piece. The complete cost and operation calculation of the cable removal is done using Microsoft Excel. However main results are shown in table4. Total Length of Cable (km) Vessels Removal rate (Km/day) Removal time (day) Total day rate ($/day) Cost (million $)
Table 4. Decommissioning of Cables

5.335 OSV, barge spread 1.115385 4.783103 32000 0.153059

Scour Removal
Mechanical dredge is employed to conduct the scour removal operation. The cost to remove scour is 12000$/foundation. So the total cost for the whole operation is 0.18 million $. Site clearance is not required while material disposal has been contracted to a company which will do this work without charge.

Chapter 3 Installation Process

The wind turbines and an offshore substation is planned to be reinstalled at Lillgrund wind farm. The land is still under lease, so there is no such hurdle regarding lease. Generally, for setting up new offshore wind turbines requires two main permits in Sweden. First is environmental impact assessment (EIA) or Environmental Hazard Activity (EHA) and second is permit for hydraulic operations. (Patrik Soderholm, MariaPettersson, 2011) The permit for hydraulic operations may only be approved if the private and social benefits of the project exceed the corresponding costs and damages. (Kenneth Hansen, Brian Vad Mathiesen, David Connolly , 2011) In addition to the above, one final permit may be required (both on and outside Swedish territory), and this concerns the installation of cables on the continental shelf. This permit is also granted by the Government. (Patrik Soderholm, MariaPettersson, 2011) In this case all the requisites were fulfilled before building the Lillgrund wind farm. The new turbines are put exactly on the position of damaged ones. So no permission and legal issue arises for reinstalling the wind turbines. Also it is planned to use the same turbine technology to reduce any complications and increased expenses for operation and maintenance. The wind farm was needed to be operational as soon as possible so the only change is the placement of offshore substation. It is placed onshore however the comparison between new and old design will be made later in the report.

Foundation Installation
The installation phase is started with the foundations. The jack up barge as an installation vessel with spread containing cargo barge, two tugs and a crew boat is reached at the wind farm from Malm port. In the first trip, cargo barge contained seven foundations. The installation started with the placement of pile into the seabed. After the monopile is secured in the seabed, a

transition piece is lifted and grouted onto the pile. The same vessel is used for transition piece placement and scour protection. Seven more foundations are brought to the site in second trip and installed in the same manner. The complete cost and operation calculation of the foundation installation is done using Microsoft Excel. However main results are shown in table5. Method Selected Vessel Spread Time to Install a Foundation (hours) Time to Install all Foundation (hours) Vessel Day Rate (VDR, $/day) Spread Day Rate (SDR, $/day) Total Daily Cost (TDC, $/day) Total Cost to Install Foundations (million $)
Table 5. Installation of Foundations

Self Transport Model Jack up Barge 1 cargo barge, 2 tugs, 1 crew boat 50 750 64200 25250 89450 2.795313

Turbine Installation
After installing the foundations, turbines are installed. The vessel used for installation is Jack up barge along with spread. The port used for turbines is Nyborg, Denmark due to production facility of Siemens in Denmark. The installation method of turbines comprised of four lifts. The tower is transported in two pieces and lifted in two lifts. The nacelle is lifted separately. The rotor and blades are assembled onshore transported to the offshore site and lifted in one lift. The advantage of using this method is to reduce the number of lifts and onshore off course onshore assembling of rotor provide better and accurate fitting. The complete cost and operation calculation of the turbines installation is done using Microsoft Excel. However main results are shown in table6.

Method Selected Vessel Spread Time to Install a Turbine(hours) Time to Install all Turbines (hours) Vessel Day Rate (VDR, $/day) Spread Day Rate (SDR, $/day) Total Daily Cost (TDC, $/day) Total Cost to Install Turbines (million $)
Table 6. Installation of Turbines

Barge Model Jack up Barge 1 cargo barge, 2 tugs, 1 crew boat 82.5 1155 64200 25250 89450 4.304781

Cable Installation
Inner array cables are installed between the turbines. Since the old layout is used so the time for pre-excavating a trench is reduced. The cable is laid with the help of cable laying vessel and trenches are filled with the help of dredge. The cables are then connected to wind turbines through J tubes. The complete cost and operation calculation of the cable installation is done using Microsoft Excel. However main results are shown in table7. Total Length of Cable (km) Vessels Installation rate (Km/day) Installation time (day) Total day rate ($/day) Cost (million $)
Table 7. Installation of Cable

5.335 OSV, barge spread 0.55 9.7 25000 0.2425

Substation Installation
The substation mainly comprise of 120 MVA step up transformer, switch gears and other equipment. The typical cost for 500 MW wind farm onshore substation is approximately 35 million GBP. (RWE npower renewables, August, 2011) So for 110 MW wind farm, the typical

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cost of onshore substation would be approximately 1.3 million USD. Following is the breakdown for substation cost. (RWE npower renewables, August, 2011) High Voltage and Medium Voltage Equipment = 55% Installation = 15% Civil Engineering = 10% Others = 20 % The installation cost would be around 0.2 million USD. For capital cost estimation 4 million USD will be subtracted from total capital cost

Scour Protection
The total time for the scour protection of fourteen foundations is approximately 10 days and 0.08 million dollars are spent on this.

Chapter 4 Cost Estimations

Capital Cost Estimation
A regression model, derived from previous projects, is used to calculate capital costs. The capital cost does not include cost for decommissioning and installation costs. It includes cost for turbines, foundations, substation and cables. C = 0.73 + 0.0011CAP + 0.036 WD 0.0036 DIS + 0.013 STEEL C = Reported millions of dollar per MW CAP = Install Capacity MW WD = Water Depth DIS = Distance to shore STEEL = European Steel Index

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Putting values C = 0.73 + 0.0011*32 + 0.036*5 -0.0036*7 + 0.013*200 Reported millions of Dollars per MW (C) = 3.5704

Total Cost Estimation

Net positive value (NPV) calculation is performed to see if the project is profitable or not. E = gross generated energy = 320000 MWh CD = reported millions of dollars for decommissioning = 6.466 CT = reported millions of dollars for total capital costs CT = C*total capacity = 114.2528 - 4.0 CI = reported millions of dollars for installation = 7.622 Loss = Losses from WindPRO calculations = 3.06% Price = price of electricity 90.00 $ / MWh OM (operation and maintenance) = 10.00 $ / MWh r = real interest rate 30 years fixed 4.50 %

NPV after 1year = -100.622 million $ NPV after 6 years = 3.219 million $ NPV after 30 years = 278.363 million $

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Gantt chart for Project

The Microsoft Project is employed as a planning tool for different activities within this project. The project is divided into 11 main tasks. The main tasks have subtasks as well. The complete process is shown below using Gantt chart.

Figure 2. Gantt chart for the Project

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Chapter 5 Comparison between Configurations

In the original design, the substation is located offshore. If the same configuration is selected, the offshore substation has to be placed on monopile. The transformer would be assembled onshore, lifted off the dock by a heavy-lift vessel, and would be transported to site. After the transformer is placed on the foundation and secured, finishing work would be performed. The complete cost and operation calculation of the substation installation is done using Microsoft Excel. However main results are shown in table8. Total Time to Install Substation (day) Vessels Total day rate ($/day) Cost (million $)
Table 8. Installation of Substation

4.8 Heavy lift vessel, barge spread 119200 0.57216

Now for the sake of comparison between new and old configurations, NPV is calculated to see if the project is profitable or not. Following is the NPV using old configuration (offshore substation) E = gross generated energy = 320000 MWh CD = reported millions of dollars for decommissioning = 6.466 CT = reported millions of dollars for total capital costs CT = C*total capacity = 114.2528 CI = reported millions of dollars for installation = 7.9947 Loss = Losses from WindPRO calculations = 1.84% Price = price of electricity 90.00 $ / MWh OM (operation and maintenance) = 10.00 $ / MWh r = real interest rate 30 years fixed 4.50 %

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NPV after 1year = -104.658 million $ NPV after 6 years = 0.660 million $ NPV after 30 years = 279.715 million $ Old Configuration Total Capital Cost (million $) Total Installation Cost (million $) Losses (%) NPV after 1year (million $) NPV after 6 years (million $) NPV after 30 years (million $) 1.84 -104.658 0.660 279.715 3.06 -100.622 3.219 278.363 114.2528 7.9947 New Configuration 110.253 7.622

Table 9. Comparison between Configurations

Figure 3. New Configuration

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VITA
Name: Address: Haseeb Ahmad Gotland University Cramrgatan 3, 621 67 Visby, Sweden Email Address: Education: haseeba@mail.hgo.se Bachelors in Chemical Engineering. The University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Pakistan, 2003 Certified Professional Manager in Health, Safety and Environment, Pakistan Institute of Modern Studies, 2011 Masters in Wind Power Project Management, Gotland University Sweden, 2012

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Bibliography
Department of Trade and Industry. (2006). Decommissioning of offshore renewable energy installations under the Energy Act of 2004. London: Department of Trade and Industry. Joakim Jeppsson, Poul Erik Larsen, ke Larrson. (2009). Technical Description Lillgrund Wind Power Plant. Sweden: The Swedish Energy Agency. Kenneth Hansen, Brian Vad Mathiesen, David Connolly . (2011). Framework conditions and public regulation for wind turbines in the resund Region. Sweden: Energiresund. (Final Report). Offshore Renewable Energy Installation Decommissioning Study. UK: Department of Energy and Climate Change UK. Olsson, A. (February 2009). Analysis of All risk insurance from an offshore wind farm perspective. Sweden: The Swedish Energy Agency. Patrik Soderholm, MariaPettersson. (2011). Offshore windpowerpolicyandplanninginSweden. Energy Policy 39 , 518-525. RWE npower renewables. (August, 2011). Onshore Substation Opportunities. An RWE Innology Company. The Port of Malm. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2012, from Maersk Broker Agency: http://www.maerskbrokeragency.com/OFFICES/SWEDEN/MALM%C3%96.aspx