Brad Hirst, Sales & Marketing Manager, talks in more depth to PES about the value of temporary accommodation rentals…
PES: Why are temporary living quarter rental companies critical to the offshore wind supply chain?
Brad Hirst: At various stages of an offshore wind project’s life cycle there will be varying workforce needs: i.e. during the engineering and construction phase, throughout the life of the wind farm to operation, maintenance and upgrade of key components and infrastructure. Our niche in the market is to provide temporary offshore accommodation – in the form of what we call temporary living quarters (TLQ) – that are custom designed and engineered to specific project requirements. We use standard design modules that can be linked together and stacked to create multi-tiered living quarter complexes, which are installed on vessels, jack-ups and platforms – wherever there is space for the temporary accommodation.
Offshore accommodation rentals are ideal for short term needs. In an industry that is continuously seeking to reduce costs to be more competitive with traditional sources of power generation, having the opportunity to rent temporary living quarters reduces the total project cost by helping developers avoid a CAPEX investment for which there might be a low return. Rental equipment fulfils the need for short term work.
In any industry, utilisation rates for assets are a strong indicator of operating efficiency. Offshore wind projects, just like offshore oil and gas, will have a mix of both permanent and temporary living quarters to support the variability in offshore worker accommodation requirements. For permanent living quarters a Project Manager doesn’t want to overbuild in capacity and conversely they don’t want to under build either. You select an optimal workforce accommodation capacity and supplement your living quarter needs with a rental product for the required period.
