Chapter Three - Project Planning

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the project planning process for wind farms that is crucial to the successful planning and execution of any offshore wind farm. The process of project planning include tasks such as site locating, permitting of the wind farm, due diligence of the project in terms of yield and earnings, budgeting, pricing, and tendering, as well as the actual project management (PM) of the work packages. While starting a project from scratch, it is necessary to decide the strategy that should be pursued to deliver the wind farm on time, at cost, and with zero incidents. As a large number of skills are required at specific points, therefore the organization must be geared to solve the various tasks connected to the single item that is to be performed. Specifically, skills dealing with metocean, turbine and seabed conditions are important, as they influence the foundation design. The project execution plan is the most important set of documents in the entire project-planning phase. It determines whether the cost will be optimal and whether the program will be possible to be realized during the construction phase. The start of production of the foundations, turbines, cables, and substation as well as soft goods and services that go into the offshore wind farm is initiated by the process of awarding contracts to their suppliers. The start of production is the natural extension of contract negotiations and the award by the client and the possible suppliers.