Sea and Land Project Consultants is pleased to announce the company has completed the design of the 1,800t jacket foundation for the 396MW Merkur Wind Farm offshore substation, located in the German North Sea.

In addition to the substation topside, the jacket supports 16 J-tubes and two boat landings in a water depth of 30 metres.

Working for leading offshore fabricator Iemants Staalconstructies, SLPCL developed the design through both FEED and detailed design phases, taking into account key constructability and installation requirements into consideration to produce an efficient design to a lean schedule.

The design was subject to the demanding criteria of the BSH German offshore regulations, which meant a careful approach was required to achieve design certification.

SLPCL has a strong record of delivering projects to these unique requirements, and was able to propose design solutions which met regulatory standards, whilst also keeping additional operations to a minimum.

This was of particular relevance in areas such as pile capacity testing and some welding details.

By intelligent application of structural design expertise and project experience, SLPCL were able to produce a compliant design which also saved hundreds of additional fabrication man-hours, and keeps vessel waiting time to an absolute minimum.

SLPCL are proud to exploit our extensive knowledge of offshore construction and installation to deliver tangible savings to clients, and play our part in lowering the levellised cost of offshore energy.

The jacket is due to be installed in 2017.