Transferring in offshore wind
20 February 2025
By Michelle Ruane, Workstream Champion
Lead Safety, Health & Wellbeing Manager | SSE Renewables
Hello, I am Michelle Ruane, and I am the Lead Safety, Health & Wellbeing Manager at SSE Renewables. I have been championing the transfer workstream within the G+ and supported the creation of the workstream following challenges with the methods being proposed by contractors for transfer and regulator involvement.
Between 2020 and 2024, the offshore wind industry has seen a substantial increase in the number of incidents which occurred during transfer to and from vessels, with 31 incidents being recorded in 2020 and 93 incidents recorded in 2023. In the first three quarters of 2024, we saw 68 transfer incidents. Even when controlling for hours, we see a rise from 1.23 transfer incidents per million work hours in 2020 to 1.50 incidents per million work hours in 2023. G+ created the Offshore Wind Farm Transfer Good Practice Guidelines (GPG) in 2020 due to a lack of a good practice guidance and it being a different activity to other industries. We then reviewed the topic in 2023/2024 following an increase in the potential methods of transfer and a need to provide guidance on how it is decided what transfer method is used. After the first publication of the Transfer GPG and in response to Regulator input on lifting as a means of transfer to offshore wind structures, the workgroup reconvened and collaborated with consultants, Risktec to update the GPG. The update provides an outline of suggested risk reduction strategies, supervisory working arrangements, training and skill needs recommendations for personnel transfer capsule (PTC) and heave compensated lifting, and an example scenario-based risk assessment for each type of transfer. The updates to the document were made following workshops and a series of review sessions with the workgroup and consultants. In 2024, it was the most downloaded and popular G+ publication.
Whilst several walk-to-work (W2W) incidents have occurred over the past year, in offshore wind, this was not the focus of the updated guideline. Instead, G+ with the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) ran a separate workshop specifically on W2W safety in April 2024. The outcome of the event was a report with recommendations for industry.
The workgroup aimed to establish uniformity and best practices for transfer across the wind industry. The guideline tackles the worldwide challenge of personnel transfer in offshore wind farm operations and proposes a consensus approach that takes into consideration existing and future industry best practices. The publication incorporates elements from the previously published, Working at Height in the Offshore Wind Industry G+ GPG. It addresses conventional sea transfers such as vessel push-on, walk to work (W2W) gangways, lifting by PTC, heave compensated lifting, and transfer between vessels. Other transfer processes such as double hooking or helicopter transfer are not included in the guidance.
It is immensely gratifying to observe the high usage the G+ transfer good practice guidance document is receiving after all the hard work that was put in, and to know that it is assisting in the safe transfer of personnel and ultimately the safe return of technicians back home.
You can read the updated G+ offshore wind farm transfer GPG here, or find all our published GPGs on our website! As with all G+ publications, please do not hesitate to contact the G+ secretariat if you have any queries or suggested improvements ([email protected]).