The offshore wind industry is becoming a key supplier of renewable energy worldwide. However, the high maintenance cost for wind turbines poses an operational challenge for offshore wind farms.

An intelligent vessel routing model developed by Dr Chandra Ade Irawan and Professor Hing Kai Chan has solved the problem effectively. Their solution method based on Genetic Algorithm can dynamically and simultaneously find the best locations for Service Operation Vessels (SOV) and determine the best delivery and pick-up routes for Safe Transfer Boats (STB) to access wind turbines.

With the vessel locations and routes being optimised, offshore wind turbines can efficiently be maintained. As a result, the transportation cost of maintenance activities can be reduced as the vessels’ fuel consumption is potentially decreased by 2-5% making the offshore wind industry more competitive.