By Rikki Stancich

With three ship yards located in Hebburn on the river Tyne, on the River Tees near Middlesborough and at the port of Falmouth on England’s south west coast, A&P is well-situated to take full advantage of the UK’s Round 3 build out.

Following several key investments, the company has repositioned itself to focus on the burgeoning offshore wind sector, offering a range of services and facilities including vessel conversions for offshore renewable applications, vessel construction (for wind farm construction and O&M), production engineering, construction and assembly for offshore wind structures, and marine port to vessel and vessel to turbine access solutions.

Wind Energy Update catches up with A&P’s sales and commercial director, Neil Jarvis, to learn more about the company’s strategy and how it is targeting the supply chain pinch points.

Wind Energy Update: The UK government had earmarked £60 million for port facilities upgrades. In your view, roughly how much is required to bring port facilities up to speed for Round 3?

Neil Jarvis: Further investment is required, and investors do need a signal from government that the commitment is there.

A&P, however, is not worried about whether or not the government invests or not – we are already committed to upgrades of our facilities.

But we are also part of the lobbying process on the government’s approach to renewable energy. We would seek to be a part of clustering arrangements. It makes a lot of sense to offer cluster propositions to developers.

Wind Energy Update: To what extent would clustering services resolve supply crunches?

Neil Jarvis: Reducing interfaces is a key issue in the sector. No single developer carries out a project the same way, but a common thread that runs through all these offshore wind projects is the number of interfaces.

A&P could absorb a number of interfaces – not all, but we can support several key aspects of projects. [A&P] has a heritage of engineering and ships and we have a number of businesss that have complimentary services.

In terms of turbine monopiles and transition pieces, we are not manufacturers, but we do have enhancing capacity to ease pinch-points in the supply chain, so we could help with the fabrication.

We are also looking at self-install solutions and we have docks where you can build these out in the dry dock and float them up to site. This is a big interest for us as it reduces the number of interfaces; it makes the process simpler and brings down the costs.

Wind Energy Update: A&P’s subsidiary, Marine Designs Limited, is currently developing pontoon access systems for offshore wind support vessels. Can you provide insight into which issues these systems resolve?

Neil Jarvis: The way the wind industry is developing presents a number of issues - one being how to move large numbers of personnel quickly. This pontoon access system (that we offer through our subsidiary business Marine Designs Limited) provides a safe way to do this given that there are handrails and the wind cats can moor on three sides of the pontoon.

Generally the technology will be used in port locations and can be designed to handle various wave heights, so in other words, a bespoke design can be produced.

The pontoons are being used in construction or O&M support to provide access from a landsite to a vessel, so not vessel-vessel. pontoons .

For example we have secured 4 back-to-back contracts for example with DONG Energy, Vattenfall, ABP for the supply and installation of 5m wide 1m freeboard pontoons to Barrow-in-Furness. They are for servicing two of the current round of offshore wind farms, Bowind and Ormonde.

There are other [access] mechanisms around, but currently there is no quick and easy way to install modular systems. Ours, by contrast, can be fabricated anywhere in the world.

We build the pontoon out of a series of inter-connectable blocks (with hinges) of sandwiched polystyrene, concrete and steel. These are easy to transport and install as they are made in kit-form for on-site assembly.

Wind Energy Update: A&P is also active in vessel conversion and vessel construction. What is demand like for vessel conversions and how is this demand likely to grow in coming years?

Neil Jarvis: We recently completed the conversion of a drill ship for bore hole work in the wind industry and we are about to sign up for a new build carbon fibre vessel (a key development in our business is that we are moving away from aluminium and steel structures).

We do a lot of work associated with the mobilization and demobilization of vessels. In other words, a vessel may need to be fitted with specialist equipment for installation and construction  - we have done this for offshore oil and gas and we do the same for the offshore wind energy sector. Once the job is completed, we demobilize the vessel – we take it back to its initial state and return the vessel to the way it originally was.

Wind Energy Update:  A&P has 6 dry docks throughout the UK, as well as assembly land and load out wharfs to accommodate the construction of offshore wind structures. To what extent has A&P’s recent investment in upgrades positioned the company to take advantage of the Round 3 build-out?

Neil Jarvis: [A&P] has already invested upward of £10.5 million in Tyne in a load out quay for direct load out of fabricated items (£3million was invested in this).

We have invested in deep water berthage at all the yard sites and invested in the automation of fabrication, so in all about £3.4 million was invested in Tyne.

We are maintaining our existing business streams and are looking at new markets, including renewables, which is a big play for us. So yes, I think with these investments we are well-placed for Rounds 2B and 3.

To respond to this article, please write to the editor: Rikki Stancich