hen the Walney Extension was inaugurated in September earlier this year, it became the world’s largest operational offshore wind farm at 659 megawatts (MW) – taking the crown from the previous largest, London Array. Walney Extension consists of 87 turbines capable of generating enough electricity for nearly 600.00 UK homes. Despite its name, Walney Extension is a standalone project and not connected to the Ørsted’s original Walney Offshore Wind Farm, which began operation in 2012. Ahead of the commissioning of the offshore works for Walney Extension, which began in February 2017, were years of planning, consenting, designing, request for tenders etc. to ensure that everything was cutting edge.

Tenders with prequalified contractors
Peter Rom Poulsen, EPC director at Ørsted, was appointed to lead the project in 2014, and as the final approval for executing the project was ready almost a year later, the process of tenders began. - We issued requests for tenders each with a defined contract scope and a time schedule. The scope for each contract was designed for a selection of prequalified contractors and distributed to them. It was important that the scope matched the contractors’ core competences, says Peter Rom Poulsen. The main components for the offshore wind farm lie within 40 different contracts. Ørsted depended on a big network of international as well as local contractors and suppliers, and a deep knowledge of who could supply these specialized supplier and offshore services. And they wanted to make sure, that the contractors could meet some basic requirements. - A high Health and Safety standard is our license to operate, so we have very high demands in H&S. That is essential and always our starting point. Then, of course, competences, experience, equipment and resources are important elements when prequalifying a contractor for a tender, says Peter Rom Poulsen. In the end it comes down to who can provide the most optimal offer within implementation and cost, assessed over the lifetime of the asset.

A good result is good for everyone
- Most of the main contracts were signed in November 2015 and the following months. Altogether, there were more than 400 contracts on this project. And the cooperation between the contractors and us is essential in getting an end result like this, says Peter Rom Poulsen. Contractors working with Ørsted are often onboard more than one project, if they do deliver a good performance. A good partner is worth keeping, and Ørsted try their best to be foresighted to avoid conflicts in the process. - It is important to think of us as two different parties, who both wishes to optimize our business. We are very interested in a reasonable result for our contractors, because we will be depending on them for our next construction project also, says Peter Rom Poulsen.

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