Siemens celebrated the official christenings of the first purpose-built Service Operation Vessels (SOV) this week. The christening events took place in cooperation with Esvagt A/S, owner of the two vessels, in Rostock, Germany, and Hamburg, Germany.
The Esvagt Froude was the first to be formally christened on June 23 in Rostock and is supporting service and maintenance operations at EnBW’s Baltic II wind farm in the Baltic Sea. Today, the Esvagt Faraday was officially christened in Hamburg and will be deployed for service of wpd’s Butendiek wind farm in the North Sea.
With a large onboard parts storage area and comfortable accommodations, as many as 40 Siemens’ technicians will live and work on the SOVs near the wind farm for several weeks at a time, significantly reducing the time traveling to and from the wind turbines. This will help to increase the technician working hours in the turbine by as much as 50 percent over traditional CTVs.
The motion-sensored Ampelmann hydraulic access system on the SOVs will contribute to increasing the working window impacted by weather by enabling technicians to safely “walk to work” in the turbines at higher wave heights. As the SOV can stay in the field for several weeks at a time, the vessel only needs to return to port for fueling and the replenishment of supplies and equipment.
In addition to being the end user of the SOV for offshore wind service purposes, Siemens also was a supplier to Esvagt A/S for two systems aboard the vessel. The Siemens BlueDrive™ propulsion system helps reduce CO2 emissions and fuel consumption, and Siemens hydraulics are used in the Ampelmann active access gangway system.
Siemens has also signed a chartering agreement with ship owner, Bernhard Schulte, for two Ulstein SX175 SOVs to be purpose-built for the long-term service and maintenance operations of the Gemini and Sandbank/Dan Tysk offshore wind power plants in the North Sea.
Images: Siemens