Annual work report 2015 Offshore wind energy power plant

Northwind

Table of Contents

1 Introduction .................................................................................................4

2 Project overview...........................................................................................6

3 Construction Finalization ..............................................................................7

3.1 Description of the construction method and wind turbine........................................................................ 7

3.2 Detailed overview of the activity of punch-list items during 2015 ............. Error! Bookmark not defined.

4 Wind farm annual operations information ...................................................8

4.1 Wind turbine data ....................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.2 Availability ................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.3 Availability of the electrical installation ..................................................................................................... 8

4.4 Production .................................................................................................................................................. 8

4.4.1 Performance of the wind farm .............................................................................................................8

4.4.2 Wind analyses ....................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.4.3 Wind rose & energetic wind rose .........................................................................................................8

4.5 Maintenance .............................................................................................................................................. 9

4.5.1 Planned Maintenance ..........................................................................................................................9

4.5.2 Unexpected Maintenance ..................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

5 Permit conditions ....................................................................................... 10

6 Results monitoring ........................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

6.1 Overview of the monitoring activity ............................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

6.2 Results of the monitoring ............................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

6.2.1 Burial depth of export cable .................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

6.2.2 Scour protection and infield cable ........................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

6.2.3 Cathodic protection ............................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

6.2.4 Structural health monitoring ................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

6.2.5 Underwater visual inspection of foundations using ROV ...................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

7 Operations Management ............................................................................ 12

7.1 OPEX (Confidential) ..................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

7.2 Health Safety and environment ............................................................................................................... 12

7.2.1 Unwanted events over the reporting period ........................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

7.2.2 Proactive safety initiatives .................................................................................................................12

7.2.3 Emergency exercises ..........................................................................................................................12

7.2.4 Emergency actions (TIER2) .................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

7.3 Vessel & accessibility ................................................................................................................................ 12

7.4 O&M office ............................................................................................................................................... 12

8 Conclusion and outlook .............................................................................. 13

1 Introduction The Northwind offshore wind farm is located on the Belgian Continental Shelf, within the Belgian Exclusive Economic zone. The distance from the wind farm to the nearest point at the shore (Zeebrugge) is approximately 38 km.

Quantity 72 #

Power wind turbine 3 MW

Wind farm power 216 MW

Offshore HV stations 1 #

Average distance between WTG rows 515 m

Average distance between WTG in a row 456 m

Wind farm area 13.8 km2

Minimum seabed level depth, approx 14.4 m LAT

Maximum seabed level depth, approx 29.6 m LAT

Distance to the coast, approx 38 km

Table 1: Location offshore wind farm Northwind

Figure 1: Location offshore wind farm Northwind

Concession Area Northwind

Offshore HV Cable

Zeebrugge

The wind farm is located between Belwind (phase 1 already realized) and C-Power. The domain concession was granted in 2010.

Figure 2: Zone of the Domain concession

Contour points UTM zone 31 WGS 84

Geographic WGS84 (dd m,mmmm’)

X Y E N

E1 491,162 5,716,066 2°52,3445' 51°35,7345'

E2 493,374 5,717,495 2°54,2588' 51°36,5072'

E3 493,520 5,717,355 2°54,3855' 51°36,4318'

E4 494,670 5,718,099 2°55,3813' 51°36,8338'

E5 495,178 5,718,507 2°55,8212' 51°37,0543'

E6 496,166 5,719,432 2°56,6767' 51°37,5538'

E7 494,939 5,720,619 2°55,6122' 51°38,1935'

E8 493,908 5,721,617 2°54,7173' 51°38,7313'

E9 491,557 5,718,534 2°52,6830' 51°37,0663'

E10 490,033 5,716,562 2°51,3657' 51°36,0008'

E11 489,964 5,716,489 2°51,3060' 51°35,9615'

Table 2: Co-ordinates of the corner points of the domain concession

3,5 NM

1,7 NM

2 Project overview Northwind has developed and constructed an offshore wind power plant of 216 MW capacity on the Lodewijk Bank in the North Sea off the coast of Zeebrugge, Belgium. The project was developed by Northwind and comprises 72 MVOW V112-3.0 MW Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs) plus the supporting infrastructure (infield cables, export cable and offshore high voltage station). Offshore works commenced in mid-March 2013 and transfer to the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) phase of the Project was completed by 30 June 2014 following handover of the foundation works. Commissioning of all WTGs was completed on 28 May 2014. During the construction period, Mott Macdonald was assigned by the MUMM to produce the 3-monthly environmental reports. This environmental report provides a monitoring update for the period from 01 January 2015 to 31 December 2015.

3 Construction Finalization

3.1 Description of the construction method and wind turbine For Northwind, monopole (MP) foundations have been used. This construction method consists of a monopile, a transition piece and the actual wind turbine. Starting from the bottom, the monopile is a tube of about 70 m long, diameter 5 m which is hammered into the ground. On top of this monopile, a transition piece TP is fitted. This is also a tubular section of about 25 m long and 4.5 m diameter. The purpose of this transition piece is to accommodate the boat landings and access platforms, and to ensure a perfect vertical alignment of the wind turbine, which is bolted on top of the TP. The connection between the TP and the MP is made by a special kind of concrete, called grout. The TP is mounted on the MP, aligned with the vertical using hydraulic jacks, and then this grouted connection is made.

Figure 3: The Northwind Foundation & installation of the MVOW V112 turbines

All turbines were energized on 18/05/2014.

4 Wind farm annual operations information

4.1 Availability of the electrical installation In 2015, the main electrical infrastructure was 99.69% available.

4.2 Production

4.2.1 Performance of the wind farm

Figure 4: Monthly production 2015

4.2.2 Wind rose & energetic wind rose

Figure 5: Energetic wind rose

The displayed wind direction and wind speed frequency plot is a graphical representation of the wind speed and direction. The wind speed is calculated as an average from all turbines.

For all wind speed categories, the wind direction WSW prevail.

4.3 Maintenance

4.3.1 Planned Maintenance

MVOW, the service contractor for the Northwind turbines, performed the following planned maintenance and inspections in 2015:

- Annual service: First yearly service has been finished in November 2015. The second yearly

service has been started directly afterwards, whereof two have been completed. During the

yearly service every component is carefully inspected and made sure it will operate correctly for

the next year.

- MVOW HV inspections: every year, all the HV equipment on the turbines (transformer and

switchgears) is inspected by MVOW.

- Statutory inspections: on regular intervals, the service elevator (3 months), the Davit crane on

the transition piece (1year) and the hook on points (1 year) are inspected and certified by a 3th

party (AIB-Vincotte).

- Vincotte HV inspections: every year, MVOW skilled technicians and a third party [AIB-Vincotte]

inspect and certifies the HV installation.

On the electrical installation, the following tasks have been performed for 2015 as part of the routine maintenance:

- HV maintenance by contractor CG Services;

- All auxiliary equipment by Parkwind.

On the foundations, the following tasks have been performed for 2015 as part of the routine maintenance:

- Topside inspections; - Inspection of cathodic protection; - Survey of cables and scour protection; - Underwater inspection of outer submerged foundation.

5 Permit conditions In compliance the Ministerial Decree dated November 19th 2009 regarding the authorization for the construction and a license for the operation of a wind farm on the Lodewijkbank in the Belgian sea areas, we give an overview of the environmental permit conditions as mentioned in the appendix 1 of the authorization for the construction and a license for the operation of a wind farm.

Condition Number

Condition Summary Current Status

2 Each planned modification must be reported to the Board and will be included in the annual work report.

Since the development of the second phase of the Bligh Bank project (Nobelwind) and the design of the shared grid connection Nobelwind and Northwind, it was decided by Northwind (for financial reasons) to transfer the owner ship of the 220 kV panels in the OHVS of Northwind and the 220 kV export cable to shore to a new company, namely Cableco CVBA.

Therefor the construction and operation licence has to be partial transferred to Cableco. The modalities of this transfer to Cableco have been confirmed by a Ministerial Decree of October 9th 2015.

4 The holder undertakes to find and recover all floating or sunken objects used for its activities which, for any reason, have ended up in the sea during the construction, operation or dismantling stages.

See point 3.2 regarding the recovery of the 3 swing gates.

15 The holder must set up the necessary safety systems to assure the signalling of the wind farm and structures at all times.

Since 21 Mai 2014 all navigation and aviation signalisation is fully operational and monitored.

16 All WTGs must be numbered individually at the base of the mast and at the top of the nacelle.

The foundation and the WTGs have been numbered in accordance with the requirements of this condition.

17 All WTGs and transformers must be provided with collection receptacles to prevent liquids from being released in the environment.

The design of the WTG is such that in case of leakage in the nacelle, all fluids are collected in the central part of the nacelle. From here, collection receptacles are installed under the oil pumps and hydraulic systems as standard.

20 During the operation stage, the availability must be facilitated of a specially equipped intervention vessel (or combination of vessels) for assignments concerning the prevention of shipping traffic accidents and cleaning up sea pollution round and in the wind farm

An agreement was signed with Federal authority responsible for the marine environment.

Further clarification regarding the practicalities of the agreement have been clarified in vision text signed by the Secretary of State, DG Environment, MUMM and windparks C-power, Belwind and Northwind

21 Once or twice a year, the holder must take part in simulated nautical accidents, emergency towing exercises and pollution combating exercises.

On a regular base Northwind, MVOW execute internal emergency exercises (NORSAR, NORPOL).

29.1 The construction materials and rip-rap must be made of natural materials and must not contain any waste materials or a secondary raw material… the use of slag is prohibited.

Certificates of Origin supplied for all scour protection materials have been transmitted to the MUMM.

33.1 The lighting of the turbines for the benefit of shipping and aviation traffic must comply with the conditions set by the competent authorities.

Lights are installed according to the Navigational Aids plan and have been fully operational in the O&M reporting period.

33.2 Foghorns, which come into operation automatically in the event of a meteorological visibility of less than 2 sea miles, must be placed on the corner turbines.

Fog horns are installed according to the Navigational Aids plan and have been fully operational in the O&M reporting period.

34 The holder must maintain the farm on a regular basis.

All installations are maintained on a regular basis.

Condition Number

Condition Summary Current Status

48 A logbook must be kept in which the following is specified for each turbine:

Date, time and all relevant data of incidents that occur which have an impact of the environment, stating the measures taken; and

The recording of hazardous waste materials, the date of removal of the relevant batch of waste, the quantity and the name of the carrier and the recognised waste processor must also be recorded.

We confirm that logbooks have been kept for all turbines since start-up of the first WTG and this has continued during operation.

Table 3: Permit conditions 2015

6 Operations Management

6.1 Health Safety and environment

6.1.1 Proactive safety initiatives

In 2015 some proactive safety initiatives, to avoid unwanted events from happening, were initiated:

The exploitation procedure was finalized and introduced. The goal of this exploitation procedure is to avoid

unwanted events when working with electricity. The procedure describes the correct work methods including

the lock-out-tag-out procedure, the BA4/BA5 acknowledgement, etc.

The implementation of a full near miss and hazard observation reporting system. Personnel is encouraged to

report all unwanted events. The unwanted events are logged by the QHSSE department, followed –up and the

statistics are reported and discussed during the monthly meetings. The first steps were taken to design an online

reporting tool to facilitate the notification, reporting and follow-up of events.

Existing work procedures were updated and new work procedures were implemented. Some examples are the

confined work procedure, transfer procedure, training procedure, unwanted event reporting procedure,

hazardous goods procedure, etc.

A full risk assessment was executed for the OHVS of Northwind. Risk were identified, evaluated and measures

were proposed and implemented.

6.1.2 Emergency exercises

This section list the emergency exercises executed for Northwind:

- A rescue drill was organized by GEOSEA-AWAH in April;

- A rescue drill was organized by GEOSEA in May;

- Nine fire exercises with personnel on board the CTV were organized with MVOW;

- Nine man overboard exercises with the CTV were organized with MVOW;

- Four collision drills were executed with MVOW;

- Five stranded or drifted vessel exercises were executed with MVOW

6.2 Vessel & accessibility Work Vessel Coordination, a new division of A&P, has been active since September 2015 and has a dedicated task to follow up all marine activities in and around the windfarm parks of Parkwind.

6.3 O&M office The operational team of A&P for the Northwind project is since April 2014 located in the harbor of Ostend (on the REBO site):

Esplanadestraat 10B 8400 Oostende

The access to the key side with a warehouse and office nearby is highly convenient to support the offshore operations to the fullest.

7 Conclusion and outlook 2015 was the first full operational year for Northwind. All Punch-list items of MVOW and Bladt remaining from construction have been closed. Most items from the Geosea Punch-list have been dealt with as well, however some topics remain ongoing.

2015 was the highest yield year so far due to the favorable wind conditions. In combination with the very strong availability of the assets, this made for a good production year. All maintenance tasks were planned in the summer and finalized timely for a productive winter. We are happy to report that no big QHSSE incidents have to be recorded and that all tasks as mentioned under the operational permits are well managed. The HSSE team of Parkwind has manned up in 2015 and the HSS master plan is implemented and further optimized. Northwind – captured via A&P under the bigger Parkwind and Aspiravi organization – has professionalized and expanded its O&M team to continue to keep striving for improvements, further knowledge gathering and implementations of all its lessons learned with its own team and all its partners.