JBA Consulting has been appointed to carry out installation assessments for the 1100MW Inch Cape offshore wind farm off the coast of Scotland.
The group will use its ForeCoast Marine strategic and operation planning software to model and further understand the environmental impacts of the project’s installation programme.
Inch Cape – a Red Rock Power and ESB joint venture – is currently in late-stage development ahead of a construction programme that will deploy 72 turbines off the coast of Angus.
JBM’s ForeCoast Marine technology will simulate the project’s key asset-component installation phases, including foundations, inter-array cables, offshore substation platforms, export cables and wind turbine generators, the consultancy said.
Simulations will compare the performance of proposed strategies against key metrics such as CAPEX and OPEX, programme and weather technical/logistical downtime, enabling the project team to optimise its operations with its installation contractors.
Inch Cape project manager Seán Kirwan said: “ForeCoast Marine will allow us to optimise the project’s installation strategies. The simulation software allows multiple strategies to be compared efficiently and will help us de-risk the key operations in a challenging and diverse environment.”
JBA operations manager Laurie Wilkinson added: “We were delighted to be appointed to the Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm and are proud of the contribution we’re making to optimising and de-risking the project design.”