This guide helps your build a simple Design O&M case, featuring 10 8-MW fixed-bottom WTGs off the coast of Esbjerg, Denmark. 

As part of the guide, you will learn how to add a base, assets, and logistics. You will also set up simple scheduled and corrective maintenance tasks on your wind farm and add the required logistics. 

Step 1: Add a base 

Note: You will need to create bases in your Input Library before you can add them to a case. If necessary, perform the following steps in the Input Library first, then add the base to your case. 

  1. Click on the Build tab. 
  2. Click on the Bases tab. 
  3. Click Add.
  4. Choose Esbjerg.

Step 2: Add weather data to your base 

Weather data is essential for the Shoresim simulation engine to model your Construction cases. You will need to add weather data to your base and your assets (step 3). 

  1. Click on the Esbjerg base card that you added to your case. 
  2. Click on the Weather tab. 
  3. Select a weather square for the base. Those which are coloured green have ERA-5 data pre-downloaded (so are quicker to load), but in either case it is possible to download ERA-5 weather data. Click on the square and select Use ERA5 data. This data should appear to the left.

  4. Click Save to exit.

Step 3: Add and configure your assets 

We’re going to add 10 instances of a single asset, an 8-MW WTG. On these assets, we’re going to add a scheduled and a corrective maintenance task. 

  1. Click on the Assets tab. 
  2. Click Add. 
  3. Select an asset on the Wind turbine tab by clicking on the Add instance(s) to case button. If there isn’t an 8-MW asset, add a generic one. 
  4. In the Number of Wind turbines to add input, enter 3. 
  5. Click Define site area. 
  6. Click Mark corners on map. 
  7. Mark a location off the coast of Esbjerg.

  8. Click Populate site.  
  9. Click Next.  
  10. Click on the Parameters tab.  
  11. Make sure Rated power is 8 and the Nacelle height is 100 m. 
  12. Click on the Weather Criteria tab. 
  13. Click Add entry. 
  14. Enter the following criteria: 
    • Title: Work in nacelle 
    • Max wind speed: 18 m/s 
    • Wind speed reference height: 100 m

  15. Click on the Weather tab.  

  16. Select a weather square for the asset and click Use ERA5 data. This data should appear to the left.

Add scheduled maintenance tasks

Scheduled maintenance involves work orders which are released on a fixed recurrence. Downtime occurs on the affected turbine only during repair time. You can define the yearly recurrence of scheduled maintenance tasks and choose a yearly distribution, meaning whether the maintenance occurs across all asset instances or only on a fixed percentage.

  1. Click on the Scheduled maintenance tab.

  2. Click Add scheduled maintenance on the left side.

  3. Enter the following settings:

    • Name: Check foundations

    • Campaign start date: March 1st

    • Recurrence: 4 years

    • Vessel: Check Crew transfer vessel.

    • Limitations: Check None.

    • Personnel: Service technician x 2

    • Total person hours: 60

  4. Click Save.

  5. Click Add Scheduled Maintenance.

  6. Enter the following settings:

    • Name: Verify blades

    • Campaign start date: June 1st

    • Recurrence: 5 years

    • Vessel: Check Crew transfer vessel and Service Operation Vessel.

    • Limitations: Check Work in nacelle.

    • Personnel: Service technician x 3

    • Total person hours: 100

  7. Click Save.

Add minor and major corrective maintenance tasks

Corrective maintenance tasks are unscheduled maintenance work which occurs according to a time-to-failure distribution that you can define according to the Shoreline failure modelling specifications. 

Corrective maintenance is used to mode major component replacements (MCRs), which require towing the affected turbine to port. We will model an MCR as the second maintenance task in the instructions below.

  1. Click on the Corrective maintenance tab.

  2. Create a task with the following details:

    • Title: Minor corrective 

    • Severity: Critical

      • Critical failures produce downtime from the moment of failure; non-critical failures do not (but do during maintenance work). 

    • Lifetime distribution: Exponential

      • Our failure modelling page contains more details on this aspect of Design O&M. 

    • Annual failure rate: 0.01

    • Production curtailment from failure: 25

    • Production curtailment during work: 100

    • Vessel: Check Crew transfer vessel.

    • Limitations: Check None.

    • Personnel: Service technician x 2

    • Total person hours: 12

  3. Click Save.

  4. Click Add Corrective Maintenance task.

  5. Create an MCR task with the following settings:

    • Title: MCR

    • Severity: Critical

    • Lifetime distribution: Exponential

    • Annual failure rate: 0.1

    • Production curtailment from failure: 100

    • Production curtailment during work: 100

    • Vessel: Check Heavy Lift Vessel.

    • Allow scheduled work while waiting: Check.

    • Limitations: Check None.

    • Used capacity: 1

      • This specifies how much of a vessel's capacity this task fills. It is used to calculate work order bundles before leaving base.

    • Maximum delay at base: 1

      • How long the vessel will wait at base for further work orders to bundle before leaving to carry out this task.

    • Inspection person-hours: 16

    • Inspection crew size: 2

    • Preparation person-hours: 16

    • Preparation crew size: 2

    • Replacement person-hours: 80

    • Replacement crew size: 4

    • Finalization person-hours: 16

    • Finalization crew size: 2

    • Lead time: 80 

  6. Click Save.

Step 5: Add your logistics

In order to carry out the MCR tasks, we need to add an HLV and a crew transfer vessel (CTV), and for the daily operations, we need an SOV. 

Add an HLV

  1. Click on Logistics. 
  2. Click Add. 
  3. Choose an HLV. 
  4. Set the Port to Esbjerg. 
  5. Click Next. 
  6. Again, we have the option to set the vessel parameters. Under the Processes tab, we’ll use the following settings: 
    • 1.0 Mobilisation: 
      • Duration: 10 hours 
    • 2.0 Loadout: 
      • Loadout: 5 hours 
    • 3.0 Transit to wind farm: 
      • Speed: 10 kn 
    • 4.0 Jack up: 
      • Duration: 30 mins 
    • 7.0 Transit to next asset: 
      • Speed: 10 kn 
    • 8.0 Transit to port: 
      • Speed: 20 kn 
    • 9.0 - Demobilization: 
      • Duration: 10 hours 
  7. Click on the Capacity tab: 
    • Set Maximum capacity to 2 
    • Set Minimum required capacity to 1. 
  8. Click Add. 

Add a CTV

  1. Click on Logistics. 
  2. Click Add. 
  3. Choose a CTV. 
  4. Set the Port to Esbjerg. 
  5. Click Next. 
  6. Click on the Activity Durations tab. 
  7. Enter the following values: 
    • Connection time: 10m 
    • Disconnection time: 5m 
    • Personnel transfer time per technician: 5m 
    • Equipment transfer time: 10m 
    • Mobilising time per port visit: 30m 
    • Demobilising time per port visit: 15m

       
  8. Click Add.

Add an SOV 

  1. Click on Logistics. 
  2. Click Add. 
  3. Choose an SOV. 
  4. For the Off duty location, choose a point in Esbjerg port using Place in map. 
  5. Set the Port to Esbjerg. 
  6. Click Next. 
  7. Click on the Capacity tab. 
  8. For Technician capacity, enter 40. 
  9. Click on the Performance tab: 
    • Cruising speed: 12 
    • Dynamic positioning transit speed: 5 
    • Dynamic positioning activation time: 30m 
  10. Click on the Weather criteria tab: 
    • Significant wave heigh access limit: 2.8 
    • Wind speed access limit: 14 
    • Wind speed limitation reference height: 100 
  11. Click on Activity durations tab: 
    • Time between going to port: 14d 
    • Connection time: 10m 
    • Disconnection time: 5m 
    • Personnel transfer time per technician: 2m 
    • Equipment transfer time: 10m
    • Mobilising time per port visit: 12h 
    • Demobilising time per port visit: 12h 
  12. Click Add. 

Step 6: Add personnel 

Finally, we need personnel to carry out the maintenance tasks. In step 3, we specified that we need Service technicians to carry out the tasks, so we’ll create those now. 

  1. Click on the Personnel tab. 
  2. Click Add. 
  3. Enter the following: 
    • Group title: Service technicians 
    • Group type: Full time employees 
    • Members: 12 
    • Home base: Service operation vessel 1 
    • Skills: Check Service technician.

       
  4. Click Save.

Step 7: Configure your strategy 

Before running the simulation, we first need to complete some required parameters in the Strategy tab. Set the Emergency response limit to 45 and the Minimum working length to 1. 

Emergency response limit defines the travel time the personnel transfer vessel can travel from the drop off site. 

Minimum working length sets the minimum amount of working time that is required before personnel are transferred to the site. This ensures that personnel are not transferred for individual, small corrective tasks. 

Caution: If your case has any tasks that require less than 1 hour, the task will not be carried out. The simulation will still run, but the affected tasks will never be completed.

Check Bundle work orders on assets (use the same team to carry out a set of work orders) and Redeploy personnel (this allows reuse of technicians offshore). 

Step 8: Run a simulation 

With our assets, logistics, personnel, and strategy configured, we’re now ready to run our simulation. 

  1. Go to the Simulate tab. 
  2. Choose HistoricalWeather. 
  3. For the Start year, enter 2024. 
  4. Set the simulation length to 5 years. 
  5. Choose 10 Runs.

  6. Click Run simulation.

You should have ten green runs, and your output summary should look like the screenshot below. If not, return to steps 3–7 and make sure you entered the inputs correctly. If your problem persists, contact support.