RWE, one of the world’s leading renewable energy companies, is to establish an initial 30 person dedicated Fleet Servicing Team for the UK and Germany to support its growing international offshore wind fleet. Initially focused on five operational projects off the UK and German coasts, the team will secure new, long term jobs, and have the potential to grow further in line with the company’s ambition to triple its global offshore wind capacity from 3.3 gigawatts (GW) today to 10 GW by 2030.

To deliver the new service, RWE has signed a three year agreement with Global Wind Services to provide a team of expert team leads and technicians, both in the UK and Germany. The Fleet Services team will work collaboratively with RWE existing operations and maintenance teams to ensure turbine services are carried out efficiently and to the highest standard. RWE has also signed an 18 month contract with Rem Offshore/Rem Purus to provide the service operation vessel ‘Rem Wind’ to support RWE offshore wind’s fleet servicing.

The Fleet Services Team, will operate 24/7 and remain on board the service operation vessel for 14 days at a time. As a result, RWE can provide up to 500 services each year. This involves ensuring the efficient operation, maintenance, and repair of the wind turbines. It is planned that the Rem Wind will use a UK and German port for crew changeovers.

Over three years it is expected that the newly created service model will create 70 new and highly skilled jobs, including wind technician apprentices and graduate placements.

Thomas Michel, Chief Operating Officer RWE Offshore Wind, said: “These two new contracts with Global Wind Service to provide the technicians and Rem Offshore to provide the expertise and team of the Rem Wind vessel is essential to deliver our Fleet Servicing concept. It will create a step change in our RWE Offshore servicing strategy by moving from site scale planning and execution to a “Fleet Wide Servicing” model. There are numerous additional benefits, including delivering improved Quality Health Safety Environment performance, commercial availability and wind farm integrity.”

Ronny Pål Kvalsvik, Chief Commercial Officer at Rem Offshore/Rem Purus: “We are proud to again be selected by RWE for our second new build Rem Wind designed by Vard. The vessel is the sister vessel of Rem Power that will support RWE at Sofia Wind farm. It has been a great pleasure to work in close cooperation with the RWE team.”

Commenting on the agreement Thorsten Helweg, Director Service and Maintenance at Global Wind Service said: “We are very excited to establish this major- and long-term partnership with RWE. Our well-established local teams in UK (Lowestoft) and Germany (Flensburg) look very much forward to getting started and to set things in motion, and to be working closely with RWE´s local and global teams.”

UK and Germany play a key role in RWE’s strategy to grow its offshore wind portfolio

RWE is one of the world’s leading companies in offshore wind, covering the entire value chain from project development to construction, as well as operation and maintenance. RWE’s unparalleled track record of more than 20 years in the offshore wind industry has resulted in 19 offshore wind farms in operation in five European countries. Furthermore, RWE is constructing the 1.4 GW Sofia offshore wind project in the North Sea off the UK’s east. Coast. Including the acquisition of the three Norfolk offshore wind projects from Vattenfall, RWE is developing nine offshore wind projects in the UK, representing a combined potential installed capacity of around 9.8 GW, with RWE’s pro rata share amounting to 7 GW. In addition, RWE is developing the Nordseecluster, which is located in the German North Sea around 50 kilometres north of the island of Juist. The cluster consists of four wind farm sites with a total capacity of 1.6 GW.

Source: RWE