Ainscough Assists in County Durham Wind Turbine Removal

July 14, 2020 | Renewables | Energy Facts Staff Writer | 2min

Ainscough Crane Hire was employed by Keltbray Lifting Services, in collaboration with Keltbray Decommissioning and Wentworth House Partnership in order to safely remove a fire damaged turbine on behalf of the client EDF.

The activity took place at Walkway Wind Farm in Billingham, County Durham. Keltbray Decommissioning was appointed to make safe and recover a fire damaged nacelle.

Ainscough Crane Hire was hired by Keltbray Lifting Services to assist in safely removing the turbine.

Keltbray carried out a number of design development workshops with a view to developing the safest method of lifting the nacelle. A bespoke lifting beam slinging arrangement was chosen and designed, fabricated and then installed on the underside of the machine base. The nacelle was lifted in a four-point lift configuration from the beam to the front rotor.

Ainscough, working in collaboration with Keltbray Lifting Services and Keltbray Decommissioning, reviewed the various available cranes capable of carrying out a lift at this height, weight and radius and the decision was taken to use a TC2800 lattice jib crane for the main lift, along with a 450t mobile crane to provide access for the rigging team.

Keltbray Lifting Services produced a detailed lift plan using a 3D model of the structure and surrounding hardstanding prepared by Ainscough’s project engineer, Sam Pitt, which showed the planned location of each crane, and the interface between both cranes during the lifting operations.

Following the set-up of the cranes on site, Ainscough Crane Hire assisted in safely carrying out the lifting operation. Keltbray personnel attached a rigging arrangement to the crane at approximately 70m in the air, with Keltbray Decommissioning operatives removing the remaining holding down bolts from yaw ring level to free up the nacelle load. The nacelle was landed on a reconstructed pad to allow the remaining blades to be removed before it was transported to a storage facility.

Sam Pitt, project engineer at Ainscough Crane Hire’s Heavy Cranes team said: “This was a lift programme that required careful planning and consideration of many complex technical issues. Through close collaboration with the teams at Keltbray Lifting Services, Keltbray Decommissioning and WHP the operation was completed in an efficient and safe manner.”