Detailed agenda

ARRIVALS

Registration and Coffee

9:00 - 9:30

INTRO

Welcome from Karl Davis of Empire Engineering

9:30 - 9:45

SESSION ONE

9:45 - 10:00

TALK ONE

Z-Flange bolted connection

Gillian Pollard, Wood Thilsted

The Wood Thilsted Z flange is a fresh approach to offshore wind connection design. Developed to improve structural efficiency and reduce steel weight, it addresses key limitations of traditional flange systems by offering a more efficient load path without compromising performance. This presentation unveils the concept, explores its potential to lower material use and project costs, and outlines how it compares to existing solutions. The Z flange offers a promising step forward in optimising primary connections for the next generation of wind projects.

About Gillian

Gillian Pollard is a Lead Engineer in the Primary Steel team at Wood Thilsted, with over 15 years’ experience in offshore structural design and analysis. She specialises in offshore foundation connection design and has led numerous design and asset management projects. 

A finalist in the 2023 Construction News and NCE Inspiring Women Awards for Technical Excellence, Gillian was recognised for her work on connection design tooling. She actively champions diversity in engineering and was instrumental in Wood Thilsted’s B Corp accreditation, reflecting her commitment to progressive, inclusive practice.

TALK TWO

Innovations in UHPC in the context of offshore wind foundations of the future

Carmen Batista, Y-MatTec A/S

Ultra high-performance concrete-based grouts serve as transition materials to transfer and absorb dynamic loads from wind turbines into their foundations. UHPC grouts must meet stringent requirements in both fresh and hardened states, including on-site mixability, pumpability, workability across temperature ranges, rapid strength development, volume stability, very high final strength, and exceptional durability. This presentation will share our practical experiences from a material perspective, highlighting current capabilities and future innovations needed to align with offshore foundation industry trends. Special focus is on environmental sustainability, addressing how material development can contribute to durable, and environmentally conscious wind energy infrastructure. 

About Carmen

With a formal education in chemistry from Universidad Central de Venezuela, Carmen’s professional career started in oil well cement R&D in 2012 and has since focused on research and development of novel cementitious materials. Specializing in Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC), she develops chemistry that achieves superior mechanical performance while incorporating alternative, lower-impact binders. Today, she applies her expertise to the wind energy sector, developing UHPC grouts for both offshore and onshore applications, supporting more durable and efficient infrastructure solutions aligned with evolving industry demands and environmental considerations. 

TALK THREE

Consideration of risks related to foundations during project assessment and acquisition process, an investor perspective

James Gibbs, Masdar

This presentation explores offshore wind foundations through the lens of an active investor, highlighting how design, supply, and installation decisions affect risk, cost certainty, and project deliverability. With foundations making up a significant share of CAPEX and sitting on the project critical path, investors must understand their impact on critical project milestones and budget. The session covers key considerations including bankability, supply chain risk, installation timing, and contractual risk allocation—offering practical insights to inform supply chain and offshore wind developers on how to inform and facilitate successful due diligence in acquisition of offshore wind projects.

About James

James is a Senior Construction Manager working at Masdar in the Offshore Wind office in London. He has worked in offshore construction the majority of his career having started at installation contractors in Oil and Gas including Technip and Saipem prior to moving to the wind industry with Orsted in 2015. At Orsted he performed installation manager, programme manager and package manager roles within the construction organisation. Since joining Masdar he has been following their portfolio projects both in construction and development as well as supporting and managing technical due diligence processes in project acquisition

TALK FOUR

XXL monopile storage on sand berms: worth a rethink?

David Short, Empire Engineering

David will be diving into some of the finer details of the structural response of monopiles stored on sand berms and asking whether this common storage method may be silently approaching its limit.

He will be highlighting risks associated with ever increasing D/t ratios when it comes to material over-utilisation and nonlinear buckling resistance as well as identifying some potential flows within current standard practice.

About David

David holds a master’s degree in marine technology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and a bachelor’s degree in Naval Architecture from Newcastle University, UK. With expertise in engineering simulation, he specializes in Finite Element Analysis (FEA), particularly in nonlinear interactions and dynamic analysis.

David has worked on several offshore wind projects, including structural analysis for transport and installation operations on the Dogger Bank C and East Anglia 3 projects. Prior to his work in offshore wind, David gained valuable experience as a Senior Application Engineer in the CAE software industry, where he deepened his knowledge of CFD and FEA before leading product development for the structural analysis program at SimScale.

TALK FIVE

Challenges in floating development

Richard Eakin, ScottishPower

As Project director of two large scale floating offshore wind projects in Scotland, Richard will discuss the economic potential and opportunities offered by these projects and will also share his thoughts on the wider challenges currently faced by the industry as we seek to take advantage of this opportunity in the coming years. Finally, Richard will present his views on how consultants and developers can work together to focus on addressing the key risks, with consistency of messaging across industry to governments and policy influencers.

About Richard

Richard is Project Director for MarramWind and CampionWind. A Chartered Civil Engineer with over 20 years of industrial experience, Richard has worked for ScottishPower Renewables for over 14 years and has fulfilled various project management and leadership roles on the company’s global offshore wind portfolio through all project phases from development to execution. With particular experience in the design and supply of foundation structures and in working on successful joint ventures, Richard has a keen interest in the development of local supply chains as the industry grows. A keen runner and occasional golfer, Richard lives in Edinburgh and is married with 2 young children.

BREAK

Coffee and Cake

11:00 - 11:20

A chance to network and exchange ideas over good coffee and delicious cakes.

MORNING BREAKOUT SESSION 

11:20 - 12:00

Session 1: Fabrication

An exploration of how substructure designs influence fabrication, and vice versa

Tassos Vlassis - Haili, Henk de Pater - dP Project Management

Chaired by: Leah Ewart - Empire Engineering

Session 2: T&I

Monopile installation tolerances - what to do when it doesn't go to plan, and Jacket Foundation T&I Strategies

Mathias Viallon - Empire Engineering, Amir Jafari - Empire Engineering, Ed Maycock - Bluefloat Technology

Chaired by: Lewis Geddes - Empire Engineering

Parallel Session 3: Corrosion Protection

Resisting the ravages of the sea: corrosion protection for deep monopiles and jacket piles

Amy Johnstone - Kent, Nick Terry - SLPE

Chaired by: Anthony Setiadi - Wood Thilsted

Corrosion protection system design is inherent in the design for offshore wind foundation structures, with a number of challenges especially going into deeper waters feasible for fixed foundations and for longer design life requirements of 35 years being fairly common nowadays. A robust corrosion protection strategy will need to be balanced out with feasibility of the technology and how these can be accommodated on the structure, furthermore costs throughout the lifecycle will need to be considered, including maintenance, repair and potential retrofit.

This breakout session will review the following topics, from a wider perspective view on what are the decision making processes and considerations taken for the overall design and operation strategy:

Corrosion management of jacket pin-piles to be presented by Amy Johnstone from Kent

Corrosion Protection of Deep Water Monopiles to be presented by Nick Terry from SLPE

A panel discussion on whether to use sacrificial anode or ICCP systems to be led by Anthony Setiadi from Wood Thilsted

SESSION TWO

12:05 - 12:50

TALK SIX

Jacket pile grippers versus stoppers: what's right for your project?

Alfonso Estepa Palacios, Ramboll

Ever wondered if pile grippers or stoppers are the best choice for your jacket project? This presentation is here to simplify that decision for structural designers, especially as offshore wind projects face increasingly challenging geographies. We will explore the design fundamentals of these elements, their critical role in jacket performance, and key decisions influencing the certification phase. Whether you are experienced or new to the field, do not miss this out this presentation if you want to contribute to your project's success.

About Alfonso

Alfonso is a civil engineer with more than 5 years of professional experience and a strong background in offshore structures and soil-structure interaction numerical modelling. He currently works at Ramboll UK as a Senior Engineer, where he has been primarily involved in the design of offshore jacket structures using various foundation typologies such as suction caissons and pin piles. This role has contributed to building his expertise in fatigue analyses of offshore jackets and numerical pile design, across different stages of the project life cycle: transportation, installation, and operation.

TALK SEVEN

Let’s talk about boulders: how do we and how should we de-risk?

Dr Aggie Georgiopoulou, Ternan Energy

Boulders are an ever-present hazard in areas that were covered by ice sheets and glaciers during past glaciations, such as the northern European seas and in general the north Atlantic. It is a problem for foundations installation and for trenching. Efforts are being made to detect boulders faster and more accurately. AI and machine learning are proving to be excellent tools, helping remove human error, reduce time spent on repetitive tasks, and improve accuracy saving costs for developers from days on site and problems with contractors. However, can other technologies be improved in parallel?

About Aggie

Aggie is a Marine Geologist with more than 20 years of experience in researching seabed geohazards. She gained her PhD from the University of Southampton and the National Oceanography Centre and moved on to a post-doc at Cardiff University (3DLab) as part of the CAPROCKS industry-funded consortium. She was a senior lecturer at University College Dublin and at the University of Brighton. She is a Fulbright scholar alumna, having spent half a year at the US Geological Survey in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 2018.

Aggie has published extensively on offshore geohazards and the marine record of the Quaternary offshore UK and Ireland. She has supervised and examined several graduate and postgraduate projects. She has participated in numerous offshore oceanographic expeditions and has been Chief Scientist herself on several occasions on the Irish national Research Vessel Celtic Explorer.

In her spare time Aggie likes to be by the sea or hike in forests, she likes to draw and supports the arts, loves visiting galleries wondering why she didn’t become an artist instead of a scientist, follows stand-up comedy and live music.

TALK EIGHT

Unlocking seabed insights: the BGS-Crown estate data creation project for offshore wind development

Hassan Moharram, Crown Estate

The Crown Estate and British Geological Survey are leading an innovative approach to marine spatial data management and interpretation. This initiative represents a strategic response to the growing complexity of offshore development decisions.

This presentation explores the collaborative data creation project between The Crown Estate and the British Geological Survey (BGS) to enhance our understanding of seabed geology for offshore wind development. We will discuss how this initiative combines existing geological datasets with new interpretations to create a comprehensive framework for assessing seabed conditions in potential wind farm areas.

During the project's first phase, we conducted a questionnaire with industry participants to identify the most critical seabed datasets for their work. I will present the survey outcomes and aim to gather additional feedback from attendees.

The talk will cover our methodological approach to data integration, demonstrating how diverse geological information transforms into actionable insights for the offshore wind sector. I'll emphasise how this enhanced geological understanding supports informed decision-making for foundation type selection and design.

About Hassan

Hassan Moharram is an Engineering Manager at The Crown Estate, where he leads strategic initiatives for offshore wind development across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. With a background in computational engineering and substructure design, Hassan brings extensive expertise in maximising the potential of national offshore wind assets while advancing the transition to net-zero emissions.

His current work focuses on de-risking future offshore wind projects through comprehensive engineering analysis, technical data acquisition, and collaborative stakeholder engagement. Hassan discusses the challenges and opportunities in offshore renewable energy development, data-driven site assessment, and sustainable infrastructure optimisation.

BREAK

Lunch

13:00 - 14:00

SESSION THREE

14:00 - 15:15

TALK NINE

Key findings from the UMACK anchor development

Matt Dickson, UMACK

About Matt

Head of Projects at CorPower Ocean, a wave energy technology developer, with a history of working across engineering consultancy, analysis, engineering design and project management in the energy industry. Experienced in offshore project development, program management and client engagement and project delivery. Responsible for driving a Major Engineering Projects Portfolio – including novel anchoring systems for floating structures & developing the worlds first commerical scale wave farms. Holds a 1st-class Master's degree in Engineering and a Chartered Engineer registered with the Engineering Council of the United Kingdom. Full supporter of transition to net zero carbon emissions and a clean planet for all.

TALK TEN

Modelling weather downtime effects on the installation of offshore wind farms in deeper water sites

Beth Dickens, Quoceant

TALK ELEVEN

Wind sea and swell waves: getting it right, and the impact on fatigue design

Christian Mørch, C2Wind

C2Wind introduces a structured approach to bridge the gap between wind resource and metocean studies in offshore wind development. These disciplines are often siloed, despite their interdependence through atmospheric stability, wind-wave interaction, and boundary layer effects. Using a 15 MW turbine model and North Sea case studies, C2Wind evaluates three levels of metocean analysis complexity - ranging from basic total sea state assumptions to stability-informed windsea and swell separation - all to quantify their impact on fatigue loads and support structure design. The framework supports better-aligned measurement strategies, modelling efforts, and design decisions, ultimately reducing uncertainty, risk, and cost in offshore wind projects.

TALK TWELVE

How realtime metocean data can reduce cost and improve safety

Adrian Black, MarineLabs

Adrian will present use cases and analysis demonstrating how hyper-local, in-situ observations from MarineLab’s CoastScout sensor nodes enable safer, more efficient marine and coastal operational decision making.  The combination of real-time observations, on location, and MarineLabs’ Forecast AI, a sensor node, by sensor node hyperlocal forecast, reduces forecast to observation error by 50% on average over common models for key wind, wave and meteorological parameters.

About Adrian

Adrian holds a Mechanical Engineering – Thermofluids degree from the University of British Columbia. Adrian is responsible for MarineLabs’ product roadmap, delivering MarineLabs’ weather intelligence products, features, and highest priority customer solutions. Adrian started as a design engineer and ultimately led product commercialization at Pure Technologies Ltd., a critical infrastructure inspection, monitoring and data insight company. Adrian performed through Pure’s scale up to >100M annual revenue, and eventual acquisition by Xylem. At Xylem, Adrian overhauled Pure Technologies' product development process, led product management for Pure Technologies and then Product Management of Data and Network as a Service for Xylem's Sensus brand. 

TALK THIRTEEN

Development of vibro driving to go deeper

Dr. Indrasenan Thusyanthan, GDGeo

BREAK

Coffee and Cake

15:15 - 15:40

A chance to network and exchange ideas over good coffee and delicious cakes.

AFTERNOON BREAKOUT SESSION 

15:40 - 16:20

Session 4: Transitions between MP, jacket and floating

The blurred line between monopiles, jackets and floating

Morten Lind - Lind Engineering, Emma Chick - Ramboll, Richard Eakin - ScottishPower

Chaired by: Julian Garnsey - RWE

Session 5: Geoscience

Putting the Science back in Geoscience

Jaques Tott-Buswell - SLPE, Indrasenan Thusyanthan - Venterra, Yiorgos Perikleous  - DNV

Chaired by: Mark Finch - Ternan Energy

The breakout session brings together some leading voices in the offshore geoscience community to discuss some of the issues surrounding site characterisation for large offshore wind farm sites and one specific technical insight into one particularly tricky design issue – dynamic sensitivity of monopiles. Expect some lively debate in this interactive session.

Session 6: O&M, Life Extension, Structural Health Monitoring

Don't drive it like you stole it - Coaxing your project towards a longer life

John Edwards - Kent, Giorgia Lazzara - Arup, Dr Hamed Jahromi, RWE, David Robb - Renewable Dynamics

Chaired by: David McMillan - Trios Renewables

SESSION THREE

16:25 - 17:10

TALK FOURTEEN

Recent development of the FRP monopile

Jon Høvik, Entrion Wind

About Jon

Jon Høvik has 35+ years of experience with mooring systems. Designing mooring systems for floating wind such as Hywind, and monopile installation equipment since 2014.

An innovative Business Area Chief Technology Officer with strong leadership equipped with technical skills, experience, and certifications to build, operate and anchor the activities related to the offshore industry including wind engineering, mooring systems and turbine foundations.

Prior to joining ENTRION WIND he has been working for over 30 years in Pusnes, Aker Solution and MacGregor as member of the management group; Technical Manager, R&D Manager and Innovations Manager for Offshore Wind.

In ENTRION WIND he is responsible for building strategy of development, planning, coordinating, and overseeing activities in the Engineering and Development department, ensuring the implementation of efficient operations and cost-effective systems to meet current and future needs of the company.

He graduated as a Master of Science in Naval Architecture / Marine Engineering from NTH Trondheim (The Norwegian Institute of Technology) and RWTH Aachen, Germany.

TALK FIFTEEN

Surprise topic

TALK SIXTEEN

Support structure design considerations for next generation turbines

Erik Smid, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy

The 15MW class turbines are currently widely used in offshore wind parks being developed. In the future even larger turbines may be available which will next to opportunities also bring additional challenges and focus areas for offshore support structure primary steel design. This session will address considerations and findings when using Monopile-based foundation design for these next generation turbines; addressing hydrodynamics and resonance, connection design and general sizing of the support structures.

About Erik

Erik is an offshore wind enthusiast working as a Lead Engineer in the Offshore Support Structure design team at SGRE. He has over 17 years of experience in load calculations and support structure design for offshore wind turbines supporting new turbine development projects as well as offshore wind projects from conceptual design stage to detailed design stage. His main areas of interest:

• Design process development
• Integrated support structure design
• Support structure design Optimisation
• Business case optimisation

OUTRO

Closing Remarks from Karl Davis of Empire Engineering

17:10 - 17:15

OUTRO

Networking

17:15 - 19:00