Cost Optimisation in Offshore Wind Through Procurement Data Analytics

Governments have implemented a variety of national and international efforts to reduce carbon emissions to prevent the damaging effects of climate change on the environment and the global economy through the execution of several policies, including the Paris Agreement. Achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement seeks to keep the increase in average global temperature to well below 2 ℃ and, preferably, below 1.5 ℃ above pre-industrial levels, will need a shift towards renewable energy sources like solar and wind power. As a result of these efforts, renewable energy sources’ capacity is projected to expand in the upcoming years. Offshore wind is the UK's leading renewable energy source for power generation. Recently, cost optimisation efforts in the offshore wind industry have been through engineering design, especially with increasing turbine capacities. This research demonstrates how data analytics can achieve cost optimisation in procurement activities of offshore wind projects, which presents opportunities to reduce the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). Ten (10) offshore wind projects have been selected in the UK offshore wind industry by building a workflow and designing an analytic app using Alteryx Designer. The workflow is built on procurement quotations of wind turbines, marine vessels, and export cables to optimise procurement costs and delivery timelines while fulfilling the established constraints for the respective projects. The optimisation results identified three areas of cost-optimisation opportunities: Contracting, Collaboration, and Reusing Components.