Have you ever wondered what it is like to live and work on an offshore wind farm?
Dale Symonds, shift leader and engineer with Equinor, is responsible for managing maintenance and production at Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm. His work helps to power up to 280,000 British homes with renewable energy.
Following an engineering career in the Royal Air Force, Dale now has 10 years’ experience in the offshore industry.
He oversees the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the entire wind farm. This includes the wind turbines, blades, foundations, subsea cabling and offshore converter stations.
“It’s like a puzzle with all of the moving parts,” said Dale. “The weather, the logistics of vessels, the management of our people – it's about putting all those pieces together and creating the best plan possible.”
Sheringham Shoal is serviced by the Esvagt Njord service operations vessel (SOV), which transports Dale and the team to the wind farm so that they can carry out improvement projects as well as planned preventative maintenance.
The vessel has 58 cabins to accommodate the vessel crew and wind farm maintenance technicians.
It spends two weeks at Equinor’s Sheringham Shoal and Dudgeon wind farm sites and then returns to the O&M Hub in Great Yarmouth for crew change and stock replenishment. This means that the team works on rotation – two weeks on, two weeks off.
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On board, the crew live in single occupancy rooms with their own en suite. Each room has a comfortable reclining chair and flat screen TV with an entertainment box.
“Every two weeks, they update it with the latest films,” Dale said. “Although it does annoy my wife, because I get to see films before they come out!”
There is also a cinema room, a gym, a laundry room and a recreational deck with PlayStations.
“We’ve got areas where the team can relax together,” Dale said.
The vessel features its own canteen, with catering staff serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. A typical breakfast for Dale includes scrambled egg and smoked salmon, but the crew can also choose from a full English or a continental breakfast with cereals and yoghurts. On Fridays, the crew is treated to fast food and Saturday is steak night.
“We get looked after well on the SOV,” Dale added. “You haven’t had to cook it or clean up and – most importantly – you get a packed lunch to take out to the turbines.”
Sustenance is important because a typical shift is 12 hours long and involves plenty of physical exertion.
“Our turbines are 80 metres from sea level to the top of the nacelle,” Dale said. "So, some of the techs could be climbing 60 metres a day.”
Sheringham Shoal and its 88 wind turbines have been generating up to 1.1 terrawatt hours of green energy per year since 2012.
But even after 12 years of operation, the team is still searching for ways to improve.
“It is still quite a young industry,” Dale said. “We’re finding new technologies and new ways of doing things to create more efficient and safer working – better technologies, better equipment, better tools.”
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Technologies to enhance O&M activities include unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and autonomous remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).
“Years ago, blade inspections were predominantly done by guys who were rope access trained,” Dale said. “They would go down the rope on the outside and take photos.
"But it was very time consuming. So now we're using drones to do our inspections which are far more efficient.”
ROVs are also used to monitor the cables which run under the seabed.
“It’s really interesting to see how we can use these new technologies to make our lives easier than before – and to create more value.”
And whether it involves employing innovative technologies, working in a team, learning new things or sightings of seals and whales, Dale said a career in the offshore energy sector is continually fascinating.
“The fact that you’re in a boat in the middle of the North Sea is exciting,” Dale said. “You never really know what’s coming over the horizon.”
For more information, visit equinor.com
This article is part of the Eastern Daily Press Clean & Green campaign, which aims to promote our region as the biggest in the UK and Europe for all forms of renewable energy.
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