Port-centered supply chain modeling of floating offshore wind turbines using deterministic discrete-event simulation with weather-dependent installation operations

Floating offshore wind projects face complex logistical and supply chain challenges, with floating substructures and associated turbine installation operations accounting for a substantial share of project CAPEX, making supply-chain and logistical management a critical concern in project planning. Delays and cost overruns often arise from resource limitations, site accessibility, port infrastructure, and weather conditions. This study develops a holistic discrete-event simulation (DES) framework using SimPy that integrates onshore and offshore operations, storage management, resource capacity constraints, and weather-sensitive installation tasks, enabling a system-level assessment of operational interactions and bottlenecks. The framework is applied to a realistic 1 GW floating wind farm off the west coast of Ireland, employing semi-submersible platforms with Moneypoint Port as the base port. Results show that offshore weather is the dominant source of project delays, while increasing installation vessels and wet-storage capacity can significantly reduce the production and project times, though trade-offs with vessel utilization remain. The framework provides a practical decision-support tool for evaluating system-level logistics, resource allocation, and weather impacts, complementing traditional engineering-focused analyses by offering insights into the coupled interactions between port operations, fabrication, and offshore installation, and supporting project planning, risk assessment, and operational optimization in floating offshore wind projects. • Integrated discrete-event simulation links onshore production, port logistics, and offshore installation. • Offshore weather is the main driver of delays in floating offshore wind projects. • Wet-storage capacity and vessel availability are key operational bottlenecks. • Design-of-experiments shows trade-offs between vessels, storage, and project timing. • Framework offers a decision-support tool to optimize floating offshore wind supply chains.