The power of partnership

Proserv’s Vice President, Renewables, Paul Cook reveals to OGV Energy’sDan Hyland how “it’s good to talk” as the team’s collaborative instincts underpin its push into offshore wind innovation.

Communication lies at the heart of Proserv’s M.O. The controls technology leader has leveraged the voice of the customer to build its position in the global market, while only recently its CEO Davis Larssen was writing in the press about the central role collaboration and dialogue, between developers and the supply chain, must play in the future success of big ticket offshore wind projects like ScotWind and Round 4.

So it seems appropriate for OGV to catch up with the team’s VP, Renewables, Paul Cook the day after a highly relevant industry workshop took place in London that Proserv had sponsored and the Global Underwater Hub had hosted. The event focused on exploring the challenges for the offshore wind sector from subsea cable faults and failures and engaged key stakeholders to discuss new approaches to insuring, and to de-risk owning and operating, this critical infrastructure, with enhanced performance monitoring and improved insights into its condition and integrity at the heart of the conversation. Cook gives the background:

“Cable and termination failures amount to one of the biggest hurdles to the successful future growth of offshore wind. So much investment has been earmarked, so much generating capacity has been predicted, both in the UK and the wider world, to accelerate the transition as swiftly as possible, but the reliability of cable performance represents an undoubted Achilles heel – thousands of miles will be installed and there needs to be a step change in how cables and terminations are monitored in real-time.

“Our subsea cable insurance workshop was a fantastic success. More than 120 stakeholders with broad backgrounds, from OEMs and developers to insurers and brokers, came together to talk openly about their views on how, as an industry, we must reduce failures and alleviate risks.”

Evolution of ECG™

Leading such a collaborative event makes complete sense for Proserv. Its ECG™ subsea cable monitoring system, a vital weapon in the fight to alleviate these expensive and time-consuming failures, evolved from a consortium pooling its respective know-how and domain knowledge:

“Collaboration is absolutely intrinsic to Proserv’s wider philosophy. ECG™ provides a great example with Synaptec, BPP Cable Solutions and ORE Catapult playing essential roles from early support through to deploying cutting-edge expertise and disruptive technologies. Such input has combined with Proserv’s own control system integration capabilities and our global footprint in the energy sector to present a route to commercialisation for this innovation.”

Following its landmark win on the Dogger Bank Wind Farm, where it will monitor the condition and integrity of the inter-array cables and terminations on phases A and B of the project, ECG™ will shortly be installed on Equinor’s Hywind Scotland, the world’s first floating wind asset, and this not only offers exciting intelligence insights in the coming months, but future opportunities too:

“Very little scrutiny or monitoring has been undertaken with regard to dynamic cables on floating wind farms and this will really help prove the methodology and potential of ECG™ right across the offshore wind space, and not simply from evaluating fixed bottom cables and terminations.

“Floating wind has a pivotal part to play in propelling the industry in the next decade. You only need to look at the opportunities ahead on ScotWind where the vast majority of plans will utilise floating foundations. But while that opens up deeper, more remote waters for new offshore wind farms, the requirement for critical infrastructure to perform reliably and to be monitored live only increases.”

Cook adds that cable failures can typically cost millions, and take months, to repair so unplanned downtime out in the harsh, distant environments of the North Sea would be a huge problem. Proserv’s VP points out the rapid progress achieved by ECG™ which was essentially still in development two years ago:

“The technology is still new and its rollout continues. But there is a fundamental need for what ECG™ offers. That’s precisely why the likes of Equinor and ScottishPower Renewables have provided their industrial sponsorship. For example, from our conversations with the market, it is interesting to learn how the significance and impact of ECG™ delivering termination monitoring have taken hold, as actual termination failures have occurred and their consequences have tobe faced.”

Digital drive

ECG™ constitutes an important step on Proserv’s on-going pivot into renewable energy but Cook is keen to underline that the team is “seeking to generate further disruptive offerings to address the challenges faced by offshore wind developers.”

So, as Proserv drives further into offshore wind, powered by digital innovation, the business has instinctively established ever closer partnerships. It was announced last year that Davis Larssen had joined the Boards of both Synaptec and Intelligent Plant, another key ally in its digital push, while in the past year an alliance has been formed with innovative start-up Ortomation.io, a specialist in real-time optimisation (RTO).

Earlier this year, Larssen and VP, Digital Innovation Stuart Harvey told this publication about how Proserv’s evolving RTO technology alongside Ortomation.io could optimise the performance of wind turbines. The self-learning application, using live data, autonomously calculates the optimum turbine set points to achieve maximum power yield across a whole asset, while minimising structural stress and fatigue. The solution can not only improve base line performance but can also be used dynamically to support an operator’s strategic objectives in real-time.

Cook reveals that Proserv’s ambitious plans reflect the template employed when ECG™ was in early R&D and the team was identifying shortcomings in the industry, its future pinch points, and working to establish partnerships to spark the innovative process:

“In the past year, we have devised a broader technology roadmap and strategy. This now reaches into turbine monitoring, turbine control as well as turbine and field optimisation. We are looking to instigate a truly unique and disruptive methodology, centred around RTO, to reflect the current and future needs of the sector and representing a marked shift from established processes.

“We are focused on accelerating the development of holistic, asset-wide control systems to deliver real-time insights to empower decision-making, extend life and significantly grow return on investment. Elements like RTO and future life extension have not been explored or considered sufficiently within offshore wind.”

Communicate and engage Cook recognises that disruptive innovation also has its challenges – such as support and buy-in from stakeholders and potential customers. He explains that communication and engagement were crucial to the generation of ECG™ and this is the approach with its drive into RTO and life extension.

“Our philosophy is to position ourselves ahead of the curve and pinpoint opportunities early – most importantly that will benefit the market, but it also benefits Proserv, and our collaborators, if we can work together to innovate the solutions to offshore wind’s current and future issues. As we advance our business into new areas of offshore wind and digital technology, we are also expanding our broader Proserv team to build skill sets and our knowledge base.”

Cook has bolstered Proserv’s presence in the US offshore wind market to leverage openings for ECG™, and subsequent future solutions, with the appointment of Jeff Williamson as Business Development Director. This is a rapidly growing segment where more than 80GW of power generation is presently targeted across ten States.

In January, Callum Maxwell, another key component of Cook’s business development group, was appointed as a co-chair of the O&M Subgroup within the DeepWind Cluster, an initiative established by Offshore Wind Scotland. The DeepWind supply chain cluster consists of 800 members drawn from industry, academia and the public sector, and is the largest offshore wind representative body in Europe.

“Engagement with stakeholders is how effective innovation takes shape. We were part of the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership’s WEST business transformation programme earlier this year. This is another valuable initiative, based around collaboration and facilitating growth opportunities between developers and the supply chain.

“The UK has exciting opportunities ahead of it, particularly within floating wind. The technologies to accelerate that rollout will only evolve through partnership and open dialogue. This is second nature to Proserv and we are well positioned to play a central part.”

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