Norfolk O&M employment opportunities announced at Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm

The first seven employment opportunities for managers and engineers to be based from the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm O&M [Operations and Maintenance] base in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk have just been posted on the Statoil website [www.statoil.com/careers], Statoil being the operator for both the construction and operational phases of this 402 MW offshore wind power plant.

This marks the beginning of an exciting new O&M phase in the development of this large offshore wind energy project. To date, the O&M team has consisted of five Statoil employees who have been working on the Dudgeon project for many months from London, Oslo and Stavanger.

This team will move to Great Yarmouth in October 2015.It will be strengthened by the appointment of these seven managers and engineers, and by March 2016 a further nine new appointments will have been announced. Their task for the first year will be to prepare for the O&M phase and to support the installation process. Thereafter, they will be 100% engaged in the operations and maintenance of the wind farm.

“We have to be ready to deliver electricity from the first operational turbine to the National Grid during the first quarter of 2017, and then to take responsibility for each of the remaining 66 turbines as they are installed, tested and commissioned,” said Statoil’s Rune Rønvik, who is the Dudgeon Prepare for Operations Manager.

He continued: “The Dudgeon O&M base, together with the central control room for the wind farm, will be located on the river harbour quayside in Great Yarmouth, and the construction of the office and marine infrastructure will start there later this year. I anticipate there will be around 70 people working from this base once the wind farm is fully commissioned by the end of 2017, some of whom will work from a Service Operation Vessel [SOV] in the wind farm field on a 14 days on/14 days off rota”.

The employment opportunities which have just been announced include the HSE Leader (SSU Leader), the Central Control Room Manager and the Systems and Integrity Manager as well as four senior engineers.