2011 - 2012, Partrac, Blyth Demonstration Site, Oceanographic Monitoring

The National Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) at Blyth, Northumbria, awarded Partrac Ltd a framework agreement for the provision of professional consultancy related to Metocean Survey Services. This is in support of the proposed offshore demonstrator project to be located off the coast of Blyth, Northumbria. The purpose of these surveys is to monitor the waves, tidal currents and near seabed sediment concentrations in the region by deploying two Datawell Waverider buoys, and four acoustic Doppler Current and Wave Profilers (Nortek AWACs) each with OBS (turbidity sensors). Partrac and Gardline Environmental Ltd were jointly contracted by NaREC to undertake the work. With Partrac providing the equipment and undertaking service, download visits and wave buoy data management, whilst Gardline provided initial vessel services as well as jointly deploying equipment with Partrac. Gardline Environmental Ltd deployed the equipment for Phase 1, whilst Partrac took over the procedure from the start of Phase 2 until the end of the survey period (March 2012). Instruments were deployed for Phase 1 on the 21s t and 22nd of January 2011 and serviced for a new phase approximately every three months.