Repurposing Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms to Support Wind Power Generation

Repurposing offshore platforms into substations for a wind farm provides an effective alternative to decommissioning many of the 1300+ assets in the Gulf of America (GOA) when their oil and gas phase is completed. Here we utilize the workflow previously developed for repurposing platforms into offshore hydrogen projects to evaluate the potential of three typical platforms in the GOA to serve as offshore substations. Geospatial data such as water depth and wind speeds were combined with capital and operating cost estimates to generate levelized costs and detailed economics for a range of projects that could be supported by these platforms. Required substation equipment such as transformers and switchgear were designed and placed in a desktop exercise on the different decks of the existing platforms to verify that projects of different sizes could be accommodated.Based on the analysis of the three platforms, we conclude that typical GOA platforms could effectively house offshore substations to support wind farms ranging from 100 to 1000 MW. These projects, however, require high offtake prices to provide a reasonable rate of return at today’s costs and performance. With cost reductions from a combination of incentive programs and supply chain improvements, and better technology, these projects can provide an acceptable rate of return at the lower end of the project size and could be very profitable at the higher end. Projects in shallow water and close to shore can be even more profitable.