Early involvement from the Operations team is critical to ensure Day 1 readiness for the wind farm. A well-planned handover process establishes clear responsibilities, effective governance, and the transfer of essential documentation from construction to operations. This article highlights the main challenges, activities, and considerations for a successful transition from construction to operations.
Why read this article?
- Recognise that the handover process goes beyond asset walkdown and snagging lists
- Understand the full suite of activities and the typical challenges in the handover process
- Learn about the importance of governance in the transition from EPC to operations
Figure 1. Wind Farm Lifecycle
Key challenges during handover from construction to operations
As the operator of a large offshore wind farm, there is a significant risk if the operations team is not involved during construction. Without O&M presence during asset installation, commissioning, and walkdowns, it becomes almost impossible to close out gaps once the EPC contractor has finalised its work and left the project. Issues only discovered at COD, such as missing documentation or unresolved punch items, could directly impact the daily performance of the wind farm and, in turn, its profitability.
Successful handover planning should address both the internal transition from the EPC team to operations and the external handover from EPC contractors. While these processes are different, they are closely linked and require clear authorities, structured review processes, and close collaboration between teams throughout the construction phase.
Figure 2. Wind Farm Handover Process Overview
Topics & Considerations
Handover planning
Timely planning of the handover activities is needed between the teams to agree on both scope and timing of the process.
- Do you have handover checklists to ensure all scope is covered prior to asset handover?
- When does each handover activity need to get done and what are the interdependencies?
- How will the timing of the asset handover be? Handover can either be done individually for each WTG, in batches or all at once.
Interim maintenance
During long installation windows, interim maintenance may be needed of assets – in the period between installation and project take-over.
- Who is responsible for interim maintenance and takes care of the assets? Some statutory inspections might be required at fixed intervals and first inspections may need to be done already before construction completion.
- Whose rules & processes do you follow during interim maintenance (maintenance manuals, HSE etc)? The EPC team may have different HSE rules to follow than the operations team.
- Where are the costs allocated for the interim maintenance work? Is this part of the EPC budget or operational budget?
- Who will supply logistics for interim maintenance works?
Snagging lists
Operations walkdown of the assets needs to be done with the purpose of compiling a snagging list of quality issues or incomplete works that needs to be rectified or completed prior to asset handover.
- What assets would be representative for walkdown/QA?
- Who has responsibility for rectifying snagging/punch items? The snagging responsibility can either stay with the EPC team or be handed over to Operations team at an agreed price
- Are the right incentive structures established to ensure a proper handover?
- How is the priority to work organized? Does EPC or operations have priority access to an asset if it is only partly handed over?
Documentation handover
Project and asset documentation needs to be handed over to ensure the operations team have all the necessary information.
- Have the EPC team and EPC contractors handed over all required documentation (as-built, communication registers, certificates, permits & consents, contracts, leases, variation orders, amendments etc.)?
- Are the right people from both EPC and Operations involved in the documentation handover? Is the quality of the supplied documentation satisfactory?
- Is the maintenance documentation available prior to handover? Contractors should deliver documentation as early as possible to enable the operations team to procure necessary services in due time.
Take-over certificates
The EPC and operations team needs to agree on a take-over certificate strategy, including clearly defined responsibilities and an approach to EPC contractor management throughout the process.
- What are the requirements for taking over? Who is involved in the required activities?
- Are payments to contractors held back in case of incomplete works? Holding back payments will ensure contractors remain active under the EPC agreement until work is completed.
Payments
A number of commercial discussions are needed in the handover process both internally and with contractors. Firstly, make sure payments are held back until contractors have completed their work. Secondly, ensure fair payments for unfinished work between the EPC team and operations to compensate for unfinished works.
- When, and at what price should the snagging list be handed over to Operations? At some point the EPC team will likely hand over snagging items to the operations team.
- When are the final TSA payments handed over to O&M? Some payments may need to be held back from contractors for incomplete work.
- When is the capex budget closed down and operations budget opened?
- How is any remaining capex budget paid out to owners, banks etc.?
- Are there appropriate methods in place for availability calculations in the interim period during performance ramp-up?
Keep in mind:
- Appropriate incentive structures need to be in place for both the EPC team and contractors to ensure a project handover that meets the requirements of Operations
- Clear agreement is needed across the teams to which set of rules and work procedures shall apply in the handover period
- The documentation handover needs to meet the requirements not only in terms of scope, but also quality
- A successful asset handover process should be initiated early by involving operations already during the design and tendering process
Want to learn more about successful operations?
Just reach out to us, we are always happy to answer your questions and get into discussions on optimized operations and asset management!
Dean Hickey | Director | Get in touch
Moritz Wesebaum | Senior Director & Country Director Germany | Get in touch
