The American Clean Power Association (ACP) Offshore Compliance Recommended Practices: 2022 Edition (OCRP-1-2022) received approval from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Board of Standards Review.
The approved document represents the culmination of a five-year effort by an industry-based standards initiative formed in 2017 under the ACP Offshore Wind Subcommittee chaired by Walt Musial, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) offshore wind research lead.
Pointing to more than 200 existing industry standards and guidelines focused on the requirements for the development of a U.S. offshore wind energy project, OCRP-1-2022 covers all stages of offshore wind farm development—including design, manufacturing and fabrication, transportation and installation, operations and in-service inspections, and life-cycle planning.
OCRP-1-2022 is the first of five documents to be published and was written by a consensus-based group of more than 100 offshore wind energy industry members, co-chaired by Rain Byars, the technical and delivery director for Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind (a partnership between Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF Renewables North America) and Graham Cranston, a DNV project manager and principal structural engineer. Combined, the five guidance documents will facilitate safe designs and the orderly deployment of U.S. offshore wind energy by accounting for unique U.S. geophysical, administrative, and environmental constraints, providing the U.S. Department of the Interior with recommendations for industry best practices.
The U.S. Offshore Wind Standards Initiative is working on four additional guidance documents that will address specific topics, including:
- Floating offshore wind energy
- Meteorological and oceanographic data requirements
- Geotechnical and geophysical requirements for offshore wind energy technologies
- Minimum requirements for submarine cables.
The four companion documents are scheduled for public review and ANSI approval later in 2022.
The U.S. Offshore Wind Standards Initiative is a collaboration led by NREL, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Business Network for Offshore Wind, ACP, and ANSI. The subcommittee comprises more than 300 members from various offshore wind industry sectors.
