Heavy lift equipment specialist Enerpac has supplied GeoSea Geotechnical & Offshore Solutions with an integrated trolley system for loading transition pieces destined for the Hohe See and Albatros offshore wind farms onto a jack-up vessel.
The trolley system is mounted on two 90m steel tracks running across the deck of the jack-up vessel and is capable of holding three 500t transition pieces.
The transition pieces are fastened by hydraulic cylinders in the clamping frames, each of which is powered by four electrically-driven trolleys said to allow higher speeds than traditional skidding systems.
During load-out, the transition pieces are positioned in the clamping frames and moved along the track. As monopiles are installed, the transition pieces are advanced along the track to bring them within reach of the onboard crane.
An integrated hydraulic clamping and leveling system was included as part of the overall solution, as well.
The trolley system is controlled by a single Intellilift wireless control unit allowing fully integrated, synchronized operation, Enerpac said.
“GeoSea asked us to provide them with a fast-performing solution that minimized the time in Port during load-out of foundations on board their offshore installation vessels,” said Mart Hinnen , General Manager at Enerpac Heavy Lifting Technology. “The Enerpac trolley system was our response to this demand and has been successfully implemented.”
The 497MW Hohe See and the 112MW Albatros offshore wind farms will comprise a total of 87 Siemens SWT-7.0-154 turbines located in the German North Sea.
EnBW, the developer, plans to have the projects fully commissioned in 2019.