The capital project landscape is changing as many of our energy clients transition from hydrocarbons to renewable energy production. With Pathfinder’s corporate headquarter located in the Northeastern United States, a week does not go by without a multitude of offshore wind ventures making headlines. These projects include a massive array of wind turbines, spread across the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 10 – 20 miles off the shores of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Some of these structures are as high as 900 feet from blade tip to sea level. Although not as technically complex as their hydrocarbon counterpart projects, these projects have their own challenges; sifting issues, ocean logistics, transmission line landing locations, etc. One of the major issues today is the availability of nautical vessels to support these projects. The number of vessels needed for each project is measured in the hundreds and the US does not have availability of this magnitude of vessels (human transport vessels, supply barges, inspection vessels, heavy lifting vessels/offshore cranes, cable drilling vessels, etc.).
Some believe that traditional project management practices do not apply to these projects due to their repetitive nature, minimal technical challenges, speed, etc. Pathfinder’s experience is to the contrary, these projects, due to all the issues addressed above, are more in need of basic project principles than other projects. Project Execution Planning, Agile, and Scrum approaches deal with internal venture issues, basic project controls, risk management, etc. and all apply to these projects. Yes, there are nuances that the industry must learn and lessons that we need to capture but isn’t this the essence of what Project Management is all about.
As part of Pathfinder’s mission to bring clarity and confidence to offshore wind project teams around the world, we have developed some essential project management tools to support the basic framework for these types of projects, such as Work Breakdown Structures, Project Execution Plan templates, cost/schedule assurance reviews, risk/lesson learned templates/checklist.
Please feel free to contact us for more details. James (Jimmy) Cravens, jcravens@pathfinderinmc.com, 856-424-7100
