April 11, 2022 • 1 min read
Increasing safety and life extension for offshore wind assets
We’ve partnered with Echobolt to bring a new technology to the offshore wind sector.
The partnership will combine our offshore wind delivery capabilities and engineering experience with EchoBolt’s advanced inspection technology. This will offer wind farm owners an alternative to the traditional costly routine retightening maintenance plans required to maintain bolt integrity.
“EchoBolt’s technology eliminates the manual retorquing of bolted connections by using a non-intrusive ultrasonic method to assess the bolt integrity,” explained Pete Andrews, Managing Director, EchoBolt. “This improves safety conditions for technicians by removing the need to use high-pressure hydraulic equipment in enclosed confined spaces.”
The ultrasonic equipment is small and allows inspections to be completed in 10 seconds per bolt, a 90 percent efficiency improvement. By reducing this time, turbine bolt inspection costs are reduced by over 75 percent. Catapult, the UK’s leading technology innovation and research center for offshore renewable energy, has estimated annual savings of GBP 250 million for the European wind industry both offshore and onshore.
“Echobolt’s technology allows our offshore technicians to reduce the cost of bolt inspections, improve safety, and increase value for our customers,” said Steve Hillier, Director of Asset Management, Offshore Wind, at Worley.
“We plan to use this technology alongside our inspection activities and asset integrity management services. The approach takes into consideration asset age and operating commercial contexts, which means we can assess asset risk and carry out targeted and optimized maintenance when required,” explained Hillier.
“This partnership allows us to expand the impact of our proven technology across the wind sector,” said Andrews. “Not only does Worley bring industry-leading resources and site delivery capability, but also its ability to incorporate the management of structural bolted connections into a holistic approach for wind farm integrity, creating significant value for our customers.”
