ABS Group has issued a Verification Certificate to the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) supporting the reliable operation of the Block Island Wind Farm, the first commercial wind farm in U.S. waters.
The CRMC is the permitting agency responsible for overseeing that wind farm operations conform to state regulations.
ABS Group is the independent Certified Verification Agent (CVA) for the project and, as part of its scope of work, it provided technical verification services to help confirm that the Block Island facilities had been designed, fabricated and installed in accordance with industry standards and accepted engineering practices.
ABS Group will present the final Facility Design Report and Fabrication and Installation Report to the CRMC at the semi-monthly CRMC council meeting on 9 January 2018.
Design verification is a critical part of project development and plays an important role in maintaining incident-free operations, according to Rain Byars , ABS Group Principal Engineer and Project Manager for Block Island. “ABS Group’s independent assessment of the design, fabrication and installation of the wind farm provided lessons learned in understanding offshore wind project risk,” she said. “These insights will contribute to improving the project development process.”
All five wind turbines at the 30MW Block Island Wind Farm, built by Deepwater Wind, went online at the beginning of 2017.