GARRAD HASSAN & PARTNERS LIMITED

Their core work

Garrad Hassan (now part of DNV GL) is a specialist wind energy consultancy based in Bristol, UK, providing technical advisory services for wind farm design, operation, and grid integration. Their H2020 work focuses on advanced wind turbine control systems, wind farm optimization, and offshore HVDC transmission networks. They bring deep engineering expertise in reducing the cost of energy from wind power through better control strategies and operations & maintenance optimization. Their involvement spans the full wind energy value chain from individual turbine control to large-scale grid connection of offshore wind farms.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early H2020 involvement (2015–2017) centred on offshore grid infrastructure — HVDC transmission, circuit breakers, and protection systems for North Sea wind power delivery. From 2016 onward, the focus shifted decisively toward wind farm-level control: optimizing turbine operation, reducing O&M costs, and lowering the levelised cost of energy. The progression from grid hardware to intelligent control software mirrors the broader wind industry's maturation from infrastructure buildout to operational efficiency.

Moving toward intelligent, data-driven wind farm control — expect future work in digital twins, AI-based turbine optimization, and plant-level energy management.

How they like to work

Garrad Hassan consistently joins as a participant or third-party expert rather than leading consortia — reflecting their role as an industry consultancy contributing specialized knowledge to research-led projects. With 84 unique partners across 12 countries, they maintain a broad European network. Their repeated presence in closely related wind control projects (CL-Windcon → TotalControl → FarmConners) suggests they are a trusted, go-to industry partner in this niche.

Connected to 84 unique partners across 12 countries, indicating a well-established European network concentrated in the wind energy research community. Their Bristol base and North Sea focus suggest strong ties with Northern European wind energy hubs.

What sets them apart

Garrad Hassan is one of the world's most recognized independent wind energy consultancies, bringing decades of commercial project experience into EU research consortia. Unlike university partners who contribute theoretical models, they provide real-world engineering validation and industry perspective on what will actually work at scale. Their participation signals to consortium builders that the project has a credible path from research to industrial application.

Highlights from their portfolio

• TotalControl
  Ambitious project targeting integrated supervisory control of entire wind power plants — the most comprehensive of their wind control portfolio.
• PROMOTION
  Major multi-partner project addressing meshed HVDC offshore grids in the North Sea — critical infrastructure challenge for European offshore wind expansion.
• FarmConners
  Explicitly focused on bridging wind farm control research to industry adoption — the translation step from lab to market.