Marine Power Systems – De-Risking PelaFlex Installation Through Digital Modelling
Project Information
Company Name: Marine Power Systems (MPS)
Project Type: Floating Wind / Installation Modelling
Products Used: ForeCoast Marine
Background
Marine Power Systems (MPS) is a UK-based developer of the PelaFlex floating and hybrid platform technology for deep-water offshore wind. Bringing an innovative foundation concept like PelaFlex to market usually means proving it works before it has ever been built or installed, proof that has traditionally required physical prototypes, sea trials or early pilot deployments, all of which carry significant cost, schedule risk and uncertainty over how a design will perform once weather, vessels and real installation logistics are factored in.
The Challenge
MPS needed to understand how its PelaFlex GS hybrid platform would actually behave across a full installation campaign, including vessel operations, weather exposure and campaign sequencing, without committing to the cost and schedule risk of physical trials or early demonstration projects.
Solution
MPS applied Kinewell’s ForeCoast Marine software to model the transport and installation behaviour of its PelaFlex GS hybrid platform for a hypothetical 1GW wind farm, using 15MW turbines, sited 90 miles from port in the Celtic Sea at 90m water depth, benchmarked against a conventional steel semi-submersible.
Rather than testing physical prototypes, the software built a site- and layout-specific installation programme from vessel day rates, speeds and operational limits, combined with over 20 years of ERA5 hindcast weather data along the transit route and at site. Multiple sensitivities were run, from a theoretical no-delay scenario through optimistic, median, conservative and average weather-delay cases, allowing MPS to understand how its product would behave under a realistic range of real-world conditions without physical trials.
Conclusion
Digital modelling allowed MPS to identify performance characteristics of its PelaFlex GS platform that would otherwise only emerge during physical installation. The modelling showed the platform follows discrete installation campaigns closer to established fixed-wind practice, compared to a more complex, interrelated sequence for the steel semi-submersible, and demonstrated materially lower sensitivity to weather delay.
Under median weather conditions, modelled installation time for the PelaFlex GS was 30 months, against 60 months for the semi-submersible. Combined with marine spread day rate data, this translated into an estimated 30% lower installation cost under realistic weather conditions, insight MPS gained entirely through digital testing before any physical installation took place.
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