Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova have released an overview of their Vineyard Wind 1 project action plan, which includes removal of the remainder of the damaged blade on turbine AW-38, continued debris collection and resuming the project’s turbine installation and operations.
The incident response and action plan was developed in consultation with federal agencies, including the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and U.S. Coast Guard.
The blade removal operation entails four tasks, developed with Resolve Marine: rotating the blade to reduce hanging blade and possible controlled cutting, removing the root of the blade from the hub, removing fallen debris from the platform and addressing seabed debris.
GE Vernova undertook a root cause analysis that preliminarily determined a manufacturing deviation is considered to be the root cause of the blade event.
“From the start of this event, our response has been focused on the safety of everyone involved,” says Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus S. Møller.
“As we move forward to this next phase and begin removing the remainder of the damaged blade, we will continue to safeguard the public and the environment through our robust land, air and sea debris recovery system. Vineyard Wind is a critically important project for the region’s energy future, and delivering this project safely is our highest priority. We believe we have the right plan in place to recover the rest of the blade, secure any debris offshore and onshore and safely and responsibly resume the installation program so we can put this project back on track to deliver needed clean power to the New England region.”
