Full digitalisation of operations, maintenance for offshore industry still unstandarised
Digital O&M adoption for floating wind faces challenges.
Digitalising operations and maintenance (O&M) for floating wind farms is not yet standard practice due to five key challenges, a report from World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO) said.
Despite a well-established turbine monitoring system, floater and subsea components lack comprehensive monitoring and inspection tools.
Fully digitalised O&M strategy is undeveloped, with current digital twins being validated on pilot projects today as add-ons to the monitoring framework previously put in place.
Developers need to adopt a forward-looking view to integrate a digitalised O&M strategy from the start of their projects as the risk profile for floating offshore wind has a smaller margin and limits room for capital expenditure (CAPEX).
The development of an advanced monitoring approach is expected to provide greater marginal upside.
Another challenge for the practice is the unclear cost-benefit versus business-as-usual as it requires a high upfront CAPEX for the materials needed for development.
Whilst operations expenditure varies by project, the return of investment is difficult to measure.
“The anticipated upside of a digitalised risk-based approach for commercial-scale projects is much higher than the purely prescriptive and reactive alternative,“ the report said.
The fragmented supply chain also poses a challenge as providers tend to prioritize CMS and digital twins components instead of the whole picture of the industry.
This fragmentation of expertise complicates the full integration of information between components for a holistic monitoring system.
The collaboration among providers can deliver a more comprehensive solution, with the report citing the large-scale agreement between Microsoft and SBM Offshore.
Transparency limitations hinders the adoption of the technology as original equipment manufacturers would often withhold full asset performance data due to liability risks.
Limited data access on the technology also slows adoption and negotiation of enhanced maintenance contracts.
“The digitalised O&M strategy will disrupt the status quo of information access between OEMs and developers, operators and owners, hence the importance of a transparent yet IP compliant, secure framework to unlock the positive impacts for asset management,” the WFO report said.
The report also stated that third-party verification can help minimise the risks associated with the uncertainties
With focus only on recommendations rather than mandatory standards, developers, insurers, and financiers are uncertain about the reliability of digital O&M tools.
Also, due to this challenge, the adoption of the digitalised strategies is slower, and companies are hesitant to heavily invest on the development.
