RWE is to establish an initial 30 person dedicated fleet servicing team for the UK and Germany to support its growing international offshore wind fleet.
Initially focused on five operational projects off the UK and German coasts, the team will have the potential to grow further in line with the company’s ambition to triple its global offshore wind capacity from 3.3GW today to 10GW by 2030.
To deliver the new service, RWE has signed a three-year agreement with Global Wind Services to provide expert team leads and technicians, both in the UK and Germany.
The fleet services team will work collaboratively with RWE’s existing operations and maintenance teams to ensure turbine services are carried out efficiently and to the highest standard.
RWE has also signed an 18-month contract with Rem Offshore/Rem Purus to provide the service operation vessel Rem Wind to support RWE offshore wind’s fleet servicing.
The fleet services team will operate 24/7 and remain on board the service operation vessel for 14 days at a time.
As a result, RWE can provide up to 500 services each year.
This involves ensuring the efficient operation, maintenance, and repair of the wind turbines.
It is planned that the Rem Wind will use a UK and German port for crew changeovers.
Over three years it is expected that the newly created service model will create 70 new and highly skilled jobs, including wind technician apprentices and graduate placements.
Thomas Michel, Chief Operating Officer RWE Offshore Wind, said: “These two new contracts with Global Wind Service to provide the technicians and Rem Offshore to provide the expertise and team of the Rem Wind vessel is essential to deliver our fleet servicing concept.
“It will create a step change in our RWE Offshore servicing strategy by moving from site scale planning and execution to a ‘Fleet Wide Servicing’ model.
“There are numerous additional benefits, including delivering improved Quality Health Safety Environment performance, commercial availability and wind farm integrity.”