Marine logistics decision support for operation and maintenance of offshore wind parks with a multi method simulation model

Abstract

The offshore wind industry in Europe is looking to move further from shore and increase the size of wind parks and wind turbines. As of now marine logistics during the operation and maintenance life cycle phase is, besides wind turbine reliability, the most important limitation for wind turbine service, repair and replacement, and pose a large risk for wind park operators and owners. This paper presents a marine logistic simulation model for the O&M life cycle phase based on a combination of the agent-based and discrete event modeling paradigms, currently being tested as a decision support tool by European offshore wind park developers. The model simulates the O&M lifecycle phase of an offshore wind park with all integral components of marine logistic needed. In this paper the simulation model is described together with an application example demonstrating how the simulation model can be applied as a decision support tool.