Q: Please briefly explain your role, involvement, and experience with regards to wind turbines
Matthew Hammond (MH): I work in the innovation team at National Gas Transmission. We own and operate the UK’s high pressure gas transmission network. I am currently focused on transforming our assets to operate with hydrogen in order to decarbonise the National Transmission System (NTS). We understand that a hydrogen network could look very different to the natural gas network today, due to variable supply from renewables and uncertainty around demand for hydrogen. Although we do not own or operate gas storage, we recognise hydrogen storage will play a key role in supporting renewable electricity and hydrogen networks.
Chris Cieslak (CC): I am the founder of BladeBUG Limited, a UK robotics company developing a robotic platform to inspect and repair wind turbine blades in the field. Our goal is to remove the risk, cost and complexity of maintaining the blades – the most critical part of the turbine. Prior to setting up BladeBUG, I spent a decade working as a wind turbine blade designer, working on small city scale 5kw vertical axis turbines all the way up to 8MW giant horizontal axis offshore turbines.
Patrick Harnett (PH): I have worked in the offshore wind industry since 2011. I was lucky enough to be the Project Director for the later stages of the Lincs offshore windfarm project and I have since worked for Ørsted developing, maturing, and building the enormous Hornsea 2 and 3 projects. I now work as the Head of the European Execution Programme looking across our European portfolio.
Demitri Moros (DM): I am doctoral research student within EDF R&D UK looking into data driven approaches for optimising offshore wind maintenance scheduling. I am doing my doctorate through the IDCORE program which is a four-year CDT for the offshore renewables industry.
Benjamin Cayless (BC): I am a Research Engineer in the Renewables group of EDF UK R&D and have previously worked in engineering consultancy. My research has spanned many aspects of a turbine’s lifecycle, including: multivariate extreme value analysis of metocean conditions, loads and control for turbine certification, the global blockage effect, and hydrodynamic modelling of floating offshore wind. I am looking forward to my first WTUG and meeting interesting attendees from across this exciting industry.
Tom Andrews (TA): I work within the Energy Business Unit at the National Composites, where we support our customers in providing innovation and technology development with a particular focus on sustainability and digital. I manage a number of R&D projects related to the Renewable Energy sector. One of the key projects is the SusWIND programme which is looking to introduce and encourage circular principles to support the end of life of the composite wind turbine blades.
Q: What, in your experience, has been the biggest roadblock for utilising technology in your sector?
MH: The National Transmission System has been built up over almost 50 years so we have a range of asset types of different ages. To construct a purpose-built network for hydrogen would come at significant cost and leave us with stranded assets, therefore we are looking to repurpose our existing assets where possible. This is a huge challenge and we are having to be creative with new ideas and technologies to allow us to reach our goal whilst minimising costs to the consumer.
CC: A major roadblock we face is the hesitancy of end-users being early adopters or assisting with helping to get new technology on to wind turbines. Thankfully we have been fortunate that to have collaborated with the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, enabling every stage of development to be tested and validated on real wind turbine assets.
PH: Technology maturity and people adopting new tech are real challenges. There are a number of small players bringing some fantastic tech to the market from vessel survey drones to new turbine access technologies. The challenge is helping these companies refine and mature their products to be deliverable and profitable at volume. On the flip side adoption of new tech is a key consideration that needs to be taken into account. Some people love new things and always want the latest gadget and others would have a rotary dial telephone if they were still sold. Carefully planned roll out of tech taking the ‘what’s in it for me’ into account is vital for success.
DM: With regards to implementing data driven approaches, the biggest roadblock is the data itself. The roadblocks range from standardised forms of collection and warehousing; data quality checks and cleaning and access to data.
BC: The UK is a world leader in offshore wind, and has the largest pipeline of commercial floating offshore wind projects in the world. However in order to scale up and commercialise this technology, significant developments are required in the UK’s ports to facilitate supply, service, installation and maintenance. Nevertheless, the challenges and costs involved in tow-to-port of floating wind are driving technological advancements in offshore maintenance solutions, which I will be talking about at this year’s event.
TA: Price.
Q: What key topics are you excited to speak about at Wind Turbine User Group 2023?
MH: I am interested to learn what technologies the industry is using for asset health monitoring and failure modes which could be applied to NTS assets, and also what consideration has been given to Whole Energy Systems approaches.
CC: Using and robotics and automation to overcome the challenges of maintaining the current and the next generation of wind turbines. New turbines are being built with blades in excess of 115m, and will be located 100’s miles from the coast, in deeper waters. The additional complexities of maintaining floating wind turbines are not yet fully understood. The forecast growth of installed wind capacity, especially offshore, is massive, when combined with the shortage of skilled workers -new technology has to deliver solutions to enable this growth to be realised.
PH: The industry has enormous ambitions we want to hit and we cannot do it with the current supply chain. I am excited to discuss how we can nurture supply chain growth at an extremely challenging point in macro and offshore wind economics.
DM: I am interested to hear from all of the speakers to learn more across a diverse range of topics but I am particularly interested in hearing the keynote presentation on 'Focus areas of innovation to support future wind turbine projects' by Yannis Dragotis.
BC: I am looking forward to hearing from other offshore wind developers about their projects, as well as the technical discussions around simulating and modelling wind turbines and their performance.
TA: Opportunities for collaboration and discussion in developing a UK supply chain for both future Wind Turbine design and manufacture and establishing a solution for End of Life.
Q: Regarding the utilisation of technology, what would you say are the technologies or applications to watch for the future?
MH: We are looking at developing Digital Twins of our assets and sites which would combine 3D models with real data – both historical and live – which we can use for remote operation, improved analysis and predictive modelling, better data management, and opportunities for dissemination and training. This will also allow us to better understand how our assets will change for hydrogen operation.
CC: The advent of more autonomous systems and using data to make predictive and proactive maintenance decisions. Our BladeBUG robotic platform enables more and higher quality data to be gathered, enabling data driven decisions to be made to optimise the output of the wind turbines.
PH: I would watch for the impact of Artificial Intelligence. The latest evolution with tools like ChatGBT which can really work for some applications can really drive asset design and operational optimisation.
DM: Any technologies or methods that help to improve the installation or maintenance of the wind farm. Whether that be remote inspection or maintenance technologies that help to reduce human risk or novel methods for the installation of floating wind. Additionally, as we become more aware of the environmental impact of windfarms and try to incorporate circularity into their design, technologies such as recyclable blades will be impactful.
BC: Not only are there many promising technologies coming to market for the maintenance of floating offshore wind, but there are also vessels being developed for complete offshore wind farm installation. It will be interesting to see how widely these solutions are adopted in the coming years.
TA: Autonomous inspection and repair. As the offshore industry grows, the benefits for automation and continuous monitoring will become more and more important.
Q: Who else are you most interested in hearing from on the programme, and why?
MH: I am looking forward to hearing from all the speakers but particularly interested to hear William Hancock talk about ‘Wind Power with Supplementary Green Hydrogen Power Generation’.
CC: I am looking forward to hearing from all of the speakers, covering so many fascinating aspects of wind energy from new innovations, floating through to life extensions and end of life decommissioning. Plus it’s always great to hear from my old colleague, Nicholas Gaudern, and the great work that he and his team are doing to maximise the energy production of wind turbines – which is fully aligned to what we are doing with our BladeBUG robot.
PH: I always enjoy hearing from all the speakers, and I often find there are some real gems where I least expect it. Who I am most interest in hearing from is other delegates. The biggest benefits I gain from conferences are often from the serendipitous conversations I never planned to have.
DM: I am most interested in the talks from Patrick Harnett of Orsted on 'Delivering sustainable offshore wind programmes across the UK' and Ruth Augarde of Frazer-Nash Consultancy on 'Optimising the Next Generation of Wind Turbines with Bayesian Networks'.
BC: I am interested in hearing about the drone inspection topics, as this relates to research that we are doing at EDF R&D in this area. As a mathematician, any of the talks involving data are going to particularly interest me!
TA: The event has a great range of speakers, and I am interested to hear the challenges faced by the other parts of the wind industry, away from my day job looking at the composite / wind blade structures of turbines.
Q: Why is it important for engineers to join this conference?
MH With significant changes to the UK’s energy system fast approaching, I would encourage anyone interested in the energy sector to attend these kinds of events to get a broader understanding of what other industries are doing and share those learnings. I am pleased to see some hydrogen talks at a wind turbine event which shows there is interest in cross-sector learning.
CC: For me, wind is already one of the key sources of low cost, sustainable energy we have. Having engineers join this conference and be able to see and learn about the huge challenges and exciting opportunities there are in the wind sector is vital to make sure that we can get more engineers involved and help deliver our biggest challenge of achieving net-zero by 2050.
PH: To gain inspiration, network and gain and share insights. Most importantly to have some fun and geek out with other engineers, I know I do.
DM: Offshore wind projects are multidisciplinary and it is important for engineers to be aware of developments in topics outside of their own to foster more collaborative approaches between specialisms. The collaborations can drive new ideas and more effectively deliver projects.
BC: The wind turbine industry is such a fast-moving place as we accelerate towards Net Zero, and it is important for us to collaborative efficiently to solve the problems of the future. In-person conferences are a great way to spark ideas, foster partnerships, and meet new colleagues.
TA: The wind industry is constantly evolving, and this conference has representatives from many of the main stakeholders. In a time where we are designing next generation turbines, installing large installations, and beginning to see blades come to an end of life, it is important that these stakeholders engage with one another to ensure the success of the industry as a whole. This conference is a great opportunity to hear about the innovation and challenges that each of us face.
Wind Turbine User Group 2023 will be taking place on 17-18 May at One Birdcage Walk, London. To view the two-day programme and book your place, please visit the event website.