Presentations

Abstract

Offshore wind farm O&M accounts for up to 30% of total life-cycle costs, yet industry-standard pre-construction simulations still rely on coarse, ≈30km resolution ERA5 data. These global datasets treat ≈900 km² grid cells as homogeneous, missing the site-specific sea-state variations critical for assessing crew transfers. This creates a critical disconnect in project planning, driven by the untested assumption that local weather effects simply average out. This analytical gap is becoming increasingly critical for new offshore wind farms. Floating wind platforms are far more sensitive to specific wave conditions than their fixed-bottom counterparts, while the industry's move to 20+ MW turbines means the financial consequences of each inaccessible hour are significantly amplified. Our research asks: what is the quantifiable impact of using high-resolution versus standard-resolution metocean data on key performance indicators such as operational accessibility, and project revenue? To investigate this a Quantitive study in collaboration with the West of Orkney wind farm was carried out integrating a high-fidelity 750m resolution metocean dataset into commercial O&M simulation software. This allows us to directly test the assumption that local weather effects simply average out by quantifying the impact of data resolution on KPI's. The results highlight how resolution choices influence vessel strategy and provide insights into the applicability of high-resolution hindcasts at other sites, offering a more robust basis for O&M planning across the industry.