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Keystone Engineering designed substructures for USA’s first commercial offshore wind farm

Keystone Engineering designed substructures for USA’s first commercial offshore wind farm
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Keystone Engineering designed substructures for USA’s first commercial offshore wind farm - 1

CASE STUDY Project Summary Organization: Keystone Engineering Inc. Solution: Offshore Location: Block Island, Rhode Island, United States Project Objective: • Design jacket-type substructures for five, 6-megawatt wind turbine generators for the USD 290 million Block Island Wind Farm. • Optimize design to mitigate risk, minimize steel weight, and reduce fabrication and installation costs. Products used: SACS Fast Facts • The interoperability of SACS enabled collaboration between two engineering firms using different software and ensured accurate modeling throughout the project. • Design began in Q1 2014, fabrication was performed in Q4 2014, and jacket installation was completed in Q3 2015. Turbine installation will be completed in Q3 2016. • The offshore wind farm is projected to reduce energy costs for Block Island residents by 40 percent, as well as reduce harmful emissions. ROI • Using Bentley SACS to perform multiple simulations and design iterations simultaneously, Keystone shortened the design cycle by 50 percent compared to European offshore wind projects. • As a result of the iterative design process, the 350-ton deck and 400ton jacket are 15 percent lighter than they would have been without design optimization in SACS. • Optimizing the amount of steel needed for the foundations saved the client 20 percent in installation costs. Keystone Engineering Designs First Commercial Offshore Wind Farm in the U.S. Keystone Cuts Design Cycle Time in Half and Reduces Installation Costs by 20 Percent Using SACS Software to Optimize Steel Jacket Foundation Design Lowers Energy Costs for Rhode Island Residents Deepwater Wind, a leading offshore wind developer based in Providence, Rhode Island, undertook the USD 290 million Block Island Wind Farm project to supply less expensive power to Rhode Island. As the first commercial wind farm in the United States, the project demonstrated the feasibility of offshore wind as an alternative energy resource for U.S. coastal cities. Keystone Engineering (Keystone) was retained to design jacket-type substructures for the five, 6-megawatt wind turbine generators. Keystone used Bentley Systems’ SACS software to streamline communication with the generator designer (Alstom), and to model the complex aerodynamic and hydrodynamic loading profile for the deep-water platforms. Bentley’s flexible, interoperable offshore design and analysis software shortened the design cycle time by enabling the design team to create simultaneous simulations for multiple design iterations, and helped reduce installation costs by optimizing the substructure design for weight and strength. higher than in other U.S. locations—the offshore wind farm is projected to reduce energy costs for Block Island residents by 40 percent, as well as reduce carbon dioxide and other harmful emissions resulting from the diesel generated electric power that is currently used. Wind and Wave Loading The challenge for the team designing the highly dynamic wind turbines involved compensating for the complex loading onto the support structures by both wind and wave action. The design needed to account for the coupled effects of the aerodynamic and hydrodynamic loading, including extreme loading situations such as turbine control faults and hurricane-force winds. To calculate the loads, model the fatigue performance, and engineer the platforms to withstand various load combinations over a 20-year design life, the Keystone team utilized SACS, Bentley’s offshore design and analysis software. Clean Energy, Big Savings As a clean energy source that is currently cost-competitive with natural gas and nuclear power, onshore wind already represents a $100 billion investment in the United States. Offshore wind has the added advantage of tapping stronger, more reliable wind resources than onshore wind farms. Deepwater Wind advocates the use of offshore platform technology proven in the oil and gas industry to build wind farms in deep ocean waters miles offshore, where they are barely visible from land yet still close enough to serve major population centers. Taking the lead from successful offshore wind farms in Europe, Deepwater Wind saw an opportunity to provide cost-competitive energy from wind off the shore of Rhode Island. The Block Island Wind Farm is located 15 miles from the U.S. mainland and 3 miles off the shore of Block Island. It will supply 30 megawatts of power to about 17,000 homes on Block Island via a subsea cable. Due to the otherwise high cost of electricity on the island—currently four to five times Keystone Engineering designed jacket-type substructures for five wind turbine generators. Oil and Gas Model As an innovative solution for the design of the deep-water wind turbine support structures, the Keystone team adapted the steel jacket foundation design typically used in the oil and gas industry. Bentley SACS enabled Keystone to design the composite construction and complex nodal geometry of the jacket substructures, delivering an alt

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Keystone Engineering designed substructures for USA’s first commercial offshore wind farm - 2

“The Bentley SACS Wind Turbine module allowed us to streamline the analysis process, thereby reducing the design cycle time, the cost to the client, and the risk of errors in managing the tremendous amount of data needed to perform over 3,000 time-domain simulations.” — Zachary Finucane, P.E., Project Manager, Keystone Engineering Inc. Find out about Bentley at: www.bentley.com monopile concrete foundations that are limited to offshore wind farms located in more shallow water depths. To collaborate with the turbine generator designer, Keystone relied on SACS’ functionality for interfacing...

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