Keeping the blades of an offshore wind farm turning requires regular visits from maintenance technicians. But getting on and off turbines from a vessel is among the most stressful and dangerous parts of the job – and when waves are higher than 1.5 metres, transfers are considered too risky. Failed transfers and lost energy production are hugely expensive for operators, and this problem could be exacerbated as generating wind energy goes further offshore.
Following a two-year collaborative R&D programme with Orsted, Pict Offshore was set up in 2019 to commercialise ‘Get Up Safe’ (GUS), a game-changing offshore personnel transfer system aimed at alleviating the turbine accessibility problem.
This dynamic personnel hoist uses in-built lasers to track the vessel’s deck, adjusting the line position in real time to compensate for vessel motion. This allows technicians to clip in and transfer onto the turbine more safely and easily, without the risks associated with ladder transfers. The system aims to increase access to far offshore turbines from 50% to 80%.
The addition of GUS onto offshore wind turbines also allows for the removal of external boat landings and ladders from foundations, facilitating structural design and reducing steelwork requirements – providing lifetime cost reduction.
In 2017 and 2018, a research and development project was conducted where the Pict team tested GUS system prototypes at ORE Catapult’s 7MW Levenmouth Demonstration Turbine. The near-shore test-site was instrumental in accelerating the development of the system and acted as a bridge between workshop testing and the full offshore trials that took place in 2018.
In 2021, Pict successfully applied for an Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP) innovation grant, where they received a share of £6m to help bring the next version of the ‘Get Up Safe’ system to market.
In 2023, Pict were welcomed onto the new OWGP Sprint programme, delivered in partnership with Sharing in Growth UK – devised to support high growth companies, address business needs, and accelerate their growth in the offshore wind sector.
Since reaching out to ORE Catapult in 2017, Pict has experienced immense success. The company’s first product, ‘Get Up Safe’ (GUS) system, is a heave-compensated, personnel hoist, aimed at transforming the way that maintenance technicians access offshore wind turbines. Systems are assembled at a facility in Inverkeithing in Scotland and have been deployed at scale onto every wind turbine platform at Orsted’s Hornsea 2 offshore windfarm.
In 2022, Pict announced a partnership with Sif, a leading monopile foundation supplier, to integrate the GUS system into Skybox, its next generation TP-less foundation, and signed a deal with Orsted to deploy GUS Systems at its first commercial scale offshore wind farms in the USA – Southfork, Revolution and Sunrise Wind. Production of the systems started at the end of 2022 at Pict’s Inverkeithing facility in Fife, Scotland.
The ‘Get up Safe’ units shipped to the US were fabricated by AG Brown in Glenrothes, Fife. AG Brown recently onboarded with OWGP’s WEST short-term intervention programme, which aims to support the growth of offshore wind supply chain companies through provision of specialist advice, market intelligence and strategic sector insight.
Work to manufacture the GUS system hoists was outsourced to another OWGP backed company, Warren Services, based in Norfolk. Warren Services is a contract manufacturing specialist with expertise in the production of high-speed winches and they completed ORE Catapult’s F4OR programme in 2021, and have since become a ‘granted’ company.
To support its growth journey, employee numbers at Pict have grown from four in 2017 to 30 in .
ORE Catapult is delighted that Pict Offshore is one of the first customers at our new state-of-the-art Floating Wind Innovation Centre (FLOWIC) in Aberdeen, where the team will be testing their GUS system on our Hexapod rig – which will simulate the motion of Crew Transfer Vessels or floating wind platforms.
This is intended to qualify the next generation GUS system for deployment onto floating offshore windfarms, and derisk the solution for developers looking to improve safety and access to their assets.
