Wärtsilä, the marine industry’s leading solutions provider, has been contracted to supply the vessel design and complete diesel electric drive installation for a new field support vessel. The ship is to be owned and operated by Sartor Shipping of Norway, and will serve the North Sea oilfields on behalf of Statoil. The order is taken into Wärtsilä’s order book during the first quarter 2011.
Sartor Shipping has contracted the VS465 design from Wärtsilä Ship Design. The Bergen Group BMV shipyard in Norway, which is to build the vessel, has placed an order for the complete diesel electric propulsion system from Wärtsilä Ship Power. The scope of the machinery supply includes two Wärtsilä 6L32 and two Wärtsilä 6L20 generating sets, the electric and automation systems, the frequency drives, the gear and controllable pitch propeller, the tunnel thrusters, as well as a retractable thruster. This will be the first installation of the Wärtsilä 32 engine with its power output increased from 500 to 575 kW/cylinder. The ship will also feature Wärtsilä’s Low Loss Concept (LLC), a proven energy efficient and highly redundant power distribution system for electric propulsion applications. The combination of the higher engine output and LLC means that fuel consumption and exhaust gas emissions will be minimized.
Furthermore, the new vessel will feature, for the first time ever, a so-called 4-split reliability on both the electrical (LLC) and mechanical side. The 4-split concept means that no single failure will result in more than a 25 per cent loss of power or capability. In addition to increased reliability, this offers greater safety than traditional vessels that have a 2-split design, with a consequential risk of a 50 per cent loss.
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Source: Wartsila, May 3, 2011; :