Christy Wang, General Manager of Ørsted Taiwan, says: “We are delighted to see the first wind turbine jacket foundation delivered by our new supplier SDMS, which has gradually ramped up its capabilities and QHSE standards from scratch over the past three years. This is a remarkable journey for Ørsted, SDMS, and local sub-suppliers, working hand-in-hand to achieve this milestone. The next step will be for SDMS to repeat this success and achieve serial fabrication on a large scale. Ørsted is moving full speed ahead with constructing the Greater Changhua 1 & 2a Offshore Wind Farms and is scheduled to install the 100% Taiwan-made jacket foundations early next year.”
The wind turbine jacket foundations are gigantic steel structures, each weighing more than 1,200 tons with a height of approximately 60-80 meters (20-30 stories) and comprising of more than a thousand components. The jacket foundations are custom designed to meet the special weather and seabed conditions for the Greater Changhua 1 & 2a Offshore Wind Farms to ensure that they can last for at least 25-30 years.
Superb technical capabilities and fabrication experience are required to ensure the foundations meet the necessary global QHSE standards of the offshore wind industry. This is also of vital importance to enable local suppliers to compete and gain more business opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region and even in the international markets.
Ørsted has been in the frontline, spearheading the local supply chain development in Taiwan since day one and supporting local suppliers to elevate their capabilities. This is well evidenced by the fact that Ørsted has shouldered more responsibilities than what the wind farm owner is required, committing more than double the usual manpower stationed at the Sing Da site to support the Kaohsiung-based supplier. Over theses past three years, a total of 150,000 plus hours and significant resources from Ørsted in Europe and the APAC region have been dedicated to assisting SDMS in becoming a qualified offshore wind supplier.
To support the new supplier to achieve success, Ørsted made extra efforts and worked with SDMS on the successful delivery of Taiwan’s first locally made transition piece mock-up in September 2019. This was an important step in preparing SDMS for delivering wind turbine jacket foundations and assisting the supplier in meeting global QHSE standards.
Moreover, Ørsted has gone the extra mile to share the responsibility of the Tier 1 supplier SDMS, dispatching experts to coach its large chain of 22 local sub- suppliers working at 30 different sites to train their high-level welders. In addition, more than 30 workshops were tailor-made for SDMS to learn about the complex and intricate structure of jacket foundations, to establish the fabrication procedure, systematic quality assessment, and control processes in line with global QHSE standards, as well as to gain understanding related to managing large-scale projects and preparing documentation.
While these efforts are above and beyond the usual practice, they are excellent examples that Ørsted continues to deliver its promises to Taiwan of building a strong supply chain consisting of competitive local and international best-in-class suppliers. This is to ensure the on time, on quality, and safe delivery of Taiwan’s first large-scale far shore wind farms - the Greater Changhua 1 & 2a Offshore Wind Farms - by the end of 2022, contributing greatly towards Taiwan’s energy transition.
