Key benefits:
- Innovative delivery of site visits during COVID-19 crisis to enable time-critical financing of projects
- Flexible inspections approach for wind and solar farms
- Proactive solution based on 20 years of wind and solar inspections globally
The customer challenge
A wind farm in Canada was at a critical stage in its development. The project needed independent inspection to secure financing. However, strict travel restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic hampered the possibility for monitoring and inspection teams to conduct the required quality assessment and due diligence on site in person.
To limit delays in the project financing process, renewable energy project developer EDF needed a partner that could execute the required level of due diligence during the ongoing local travel and social distancing restrictions, without needing independent engineers to visit the site.
DNV’s solution
Based on over 20 years of experience in global wind and solar farm inspections, as well as relying on its extensive knowledge and expertise in remote inspections in the Oil & Gas and maritime industries, DNV’s remote monitoring task force developed and delivered Virtual Site Visit (VSV) procedures for wind and solar projects.
To deliver the virtual site visits, DNV developed detailed questionnaires, working instructions, a suite of tools and equipment (e.g. time-lapse cameras, communication software for live streaming, etc.) and worked with sponsors and their site representatives to instruct them on the necessary observations on project sites.
The instructions, procedures, and individual steps of the remote monitoring are delivered in a standardized program to ensure consistency and robustness in quality across all projects and VSVs.
For the EDF wind project, under direct real-time guidance from DNV experts, EDF representatives supported the remote monitoring by visiting different areas and aspects of the project sites and conducting and recording the physical review and inspection of the assets.
The process was streamed to DNV’s team in real-time while the live footage was complemented with recorded time-stamped and geo-tagged images and videos (as detailed and instructed by DNV), of different aspects of the projects.
Benefits to the customer
Based on the proactive approach and timely development of the virtual site visits, DNV has been able to provide the required level of due diligence to support the financing of EDF’s wind project and any delays due to the unexpected travel restrictions and site access limitations have been avoided.
Under such restricting circumstances, it has been critical for EDF to work with a trusted and longstanding partner in successfully executing the innovative approach for remote monitoring.