Intertek Expertise Showcased at the European Wave & Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC)

30 Aug 2023

Intertek, a leading Total Quality Assurance provider to industries worldwide, will join fellow wave and tidal industry companies September 4-7 at the 15th European Wave & Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC) in Bilbao, Spain.

Intertek’s extensive portfolio of industry-leading services continues to support our global customers, helping them minimize risks that impact safety, operations and profitability. We provide insight into every aspect of your developments and operations, allowing you to make informed decisions about your business.

Visit our experts at Stand #4 to learn more about how our expertise can support your project requirements. 

  • Wave and tidal resource assessments 
  • Dynamics & Water Quality 
  • Scour Assessment 
  • Site, Route & Landfall Feasibility 
  • Metocean Assessment 
  • Permitting & Consenting 
  • Site Investigation Permits 
  • Cable Risk & Burial Assessment 
  • Survey Design & Management 
  • Survey Field Client Representation & Installation Supervision 
  • Modelling of Tides, Waves, Sediment 
  • Energy Optimisation 
  • Physical Process Assessment 
  • Constraint Studies 
  • Environmental Impact Assessment 
  • GIS Based Data Analysis & Asset Management 
  • Regulator & Stakeholder Consultation 
  • Subsea Route Engineering 
  • Geophysical & Geotechnical Assessments 
  • Survey Procurement & Contract Development


We invite you to also join us for the following presentations authored by Intertek experts.

Wednesday, September 6 (10:15 - 10:30AM in the Arriaga Auditorium) 

Title: Mapping the Unresolved Tidal Resource in Estuaries 

Author/Presenter: Dr. Matt Lewis is a senior consultant with Intertek’s water and energy team. Matt uses hydrodynamic models to map the marine renewable resource and improve the water quality of our rivers and coasts. He has over a decade of academic experience, including having held a EPSRC fellowship in marine renewable energy, and he has published over 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers with an H-index of 31. 

Presentation Summary: Estuarine geometry often amplifies the tidal range. The amplification of the tidal energy resource (via increased tidal amplitude and associated currents) is juxtaposed to areas of high electricity demand (industry ports and residential areas), and yet the tidal resource of many estuaries is unknown due to computational difficulties. For example, a bespoke high-resolution hydrodynamic model of every estuarine system globally is not possible; instead, a simple set of rules to focus resource mapping efforts may be suitable approach. Indeed, given that significant changes to estuarine tidal dynamics can occur within the life-time of some tidal energy developments (due to the balance between the tide and river-flow climatology, sea level rise and sedimentation). We aim to develop a simple approach resolve the global estuarine tidal energy resource and how this may change within the coming century. A simple 1-D analytical model is presented, which can account for the major physical processes of estuarine tidal amplification. We find changes to estuarine tidal dynamics within the lifetime of a development should be considered, both for resource mapping and annual yield assessment, but also within the baseline scenario in assessing the environmental impact of a development (i.e. should changes to the estuary be based on present day or 2100 tidal dynamics?).

Wednesday, September 6 (2:15-2:45PM in the Arriaga Auditorium)  

Title: Development of a Tool to Optimise Tidal Stream Energy Sites 

Author/Presenter: Dr. Jingjing Xue is a consultant and modeller. She completed her PhD in Tidal Range Schemes in Cardiff University. She is expertise in numerical modelling in the Tidal Range Schemes as well as machine learning and optimisation algorithms development. As a consultant in Intertek, Jingjing has contributed to the data processing, environment assessment, and software design/development for a range of multi-disciplinary studies 

Presentation Summary: An open-source tool (in Python with a QGIS front end) has been developed that determines the physical constraints of a site based primarily on bathymetry and current velocities. This tool aims to optimise a site to help developers understand what conditions need to be met in order to maximise energy generation – it will also identify which areas are unsuitable depending on the device design. With a case study in Ramsey Sound Island in West Wales, UK, this tool has demonstrated that device design is an important consideration when assessing a site’s viability, which has shown to be particularly sensitive to water depth and current speeds.

For Information

Please contact:
Dr. Paul Evans
MCIWEM C.Sci C.Env C.WEM
E: paul.evans@intertek.com

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