Project support for offshore wind industry

Contract and Claim management 

With the offshore wind industry becoming more and more competitive, prices not only on the bid side but also on the supply side are falling. This is leading to an increased pressure, requiring highly efficient project and contract management in order to ensure profitable projects despite low margins. Low margins on both the supply and demand side will consequently lead to an increased effort of all parties to enforce their contractual rights. 

From a technical perspective, the cable market is seeing a stagnating, yet high level of number of failures, both in export as inner array cables. Considering the low margins left, such failures become increasingly problematic for the party bearing the consequences of such failures. Obviously, engineers should be striving to minimize the risk of such failures, yet some risk will remain with technology constantly evolving.  

Regarding substations, the problem of significant delays in the completion of the works persists. The market is trying to mitigate this issue by a) designing minimalistic substations and b) eliminating their need as a whole. Nevertheless, some projects and in particular TSOs cannot avoid building further substations and continue to be exposed to the risk of their size and complexity. 

Hence, both thorough contractual protection as well as sophisticated claim strategies become increasingly important in order to avoid significant financial damage. 

With our specialized team of consultants at CARNEADES we are able to support our clients in all matters relating to contract management issues and in particular to support in times of high demand. With our strong legal and technical background, we are most suitable to assess and solve the issues at hand.  

Project management 

With the offshore wind market becoming increasingly international and new players entering the market, the supply side feel an increased pressure to serve this growing market. Suppliers are required to not only operate on multiple markets but to also manage an increasing number of tender processes and tendering parties at the same time. The ability to quickly and efficiently analyse tender documents provides the capacity to focus on the key aspects of every tender and to serve as many clients as possible. 

Furthermore, in order to be able to endure on this highly competitive market, the capability to efficiently manage subcontractors becomes increasingly important. This not only includes the actual management during execution but also the design of subcontracts and the management of risk resulting out the subcontracts. 

With our strong track record in supporting offshore wind projects, both with technical and legal skills, we are able offer perfectly fitting solutions to the needs of our clients.  

Analysis 

With problems often occurring during the project execution, the skill to identify the root cause of such and the capacity to come up with solutions is key to success.  

As a result of the increasing financial pressure on projects, the need to execute projects in a short timespan increases. With buffers decreasing, the risk of delays in projects increases. In case such a delay materialises, it becomes key to have the ability to identify and present the logical dependencies of the delay events.  

With our broad pool of talents, CARNEADES is able to bring the right skills to any issue to ensure efficient and effective solutions. 

In case you have any questions, please feel free to get into contact with us. 

Projektbeispiel – Übernahme des Operativen und Strategischen Claim Management für einen internationalen Offshore-Windparkbetreiber 

Ausgangssituation:

  • Arbeitspakete zur Fertigstellung einer Offshore Substation geraten zunehmend in Verzug durch die schlechte Performanz der Zulieferer 
  • Forderungen zur Verschiebung der Fertigungsstellungstermine und Kompensationszahlungen werden von den Hauptzulieferern erhoben 
  • Erbrachte und vertraglich geschuldete Leistung entspricht nicht den technischen Vorgaben 

Lösung: 

  • Festlegung der Claim Management Strategie 
  • Priorisierung der Bearbeitung von Fremd- und Eigenclaims 
  • Aufbereitung der Dokument-/Sachlage sowie der möglichen Anspruchsgrundlagen 
  • Auswahl von geeigneten Gegendarstellung und Eigenclaims im Einklang mit der Claim Management Strategie und Versand derer 
  • Initiierung von Verhandlungen und Aufzeigen der notwendigen Restarbeiten 

Nutzen: 

  • Abwehr unberechtigter Forderung und Leistungsänderungen 
  • Geltendmachung vertraglich geschuldeten Leistungen und Pönalen  
  • Initiierung von Settlement Verhandlungen bei Punkten mit einem starken Anreiz beider Parteien ein Schiedsgerichtsverfahren zu vermeiden