On September 16, a grand launching ceremony was held for two purpose-built Service Operation Vessels (SOVs) for the Chinese offshore wind market built by Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery (Group) Co.(short for “ZPMC”) in China.
The two SOVs are built for Shanghai Electric Windpower Group and will enhance the efficiency of offshore wind farm operations , particularly in construction support and maintenance stages, by providing reliable and eco-friendly platforms, comfortable workspaces, safe access to wind turbines, and logistics capability. This is the first time that an Asian wind turbine manufacturer has introduced a dedicated SOV for offshore wind O&M, which integrates high efficiency operation and maintenance, green operation and maintenance, intelligent operation and maintenance, and safety operation and maintenance.
The two SOVs are all steel-built, equipped with diesel-electric power and lithium battery hybrid power scheme, all-electric propulsion system and DC bus distribution system, taking CCS hybrid and green ship classification symbols. The deck has large space area and excellent operation performance, which can realize efficient transportation and storage of equipment and maintenance spare parts in the wind farm; it is equipped with O&M work submarine and boarding platform.100-person SOV is equipped with aluminum alloy helicopter platform.The 100-person SOV is equipped with an aluminum alloy helicopter platform, which can greatly improve the deployment efficiency of personnel. Equipped with DP2 power positioning system, which increases the vessel’s positioning capability and accuracy and also equipped with a knuckle boom offshore crane.The 60-person SOV is equipped with the first domestic retractable trestle with wave compensation function newly developed by ZPMC, which can realize the transfer of personnel or equipment as well as the wind farm maintenance operation under severe sea conditions, and its safety performance and work efficiency are much higher than that of the conventional operation and maintenance ship, which significantly improves the window period of wind farm operation and maintenance.
The two SOVs, when commissioned, will be used exclusively for large wind farms up to 40 kilometers offshore, which can largely alleviate the pain points of the current mainstream Chinese offshore transportation vessels, such as short window period, inability to pick up and operate, high number of round trips, low efficiency, poor applicability to bad sea conditions, etc. And provide strong support for the operation and maintenance of deep and distant sea projects, which is currently one of the best solutions for deep and distant sea transportation and maintenance worldwide.