Release
Making offshore wind farms safer
Due to the rapid wind farm developments, DNV together with industry partners and authorities is now developing a new safety standard, providing safety requirements for transformer and accommodation platforms.
As the size and remoteness of offshore wind farms continues to increase, both transformer and accommodation platforms are becoming an essential part of any new development. The introduction of these platforms to the wind industry requires a common safety standard.
The existing offshore standards for safety equipment, provisions, layout, and safety requirements relating to design are currently based on offshore oil and gas installations. But given that wind farms do not produce hydrocarbons, the associated risks are different. The rules for oil and gas installations may therefore not apply to or be cost effective for an offshore wind farm.
“At present turbines and transformer platforms are only manned during maintenance and inspection activities. However, some new developments propose having permanently manned accommodation platforms. So there is a need to understand and manage the associated risks for people working in offshore wind farms. DNV will address these risks in a new standard,” says Tove Feld, project responsible.
Specific safety standards
DNV, along with five industry partners, is developing a specific safety standard that will include structural and functional design; fire and explosion protection; access, transfer and escape and emergency power. Other safety recommendations include internal communication and communication with shore, rescue and recovery as well as standby vessel. The standard is expected to be published in October 2009.
The project participants currently include StatoilHydro, Vattenfall, Dong Energy, E.ON and Energinet. A number of other companies have also expressed an interest in getting involved and the project is still open to participants. The Technical Review Group currently consists of the UK Health and Safety Executive and the Danish Energy Authority. DNV will also provide recommendations to the Norwegian, German, Swedish and Dutch Authorities.
DNV’s role in wind and establishing standards
DNV is a global provider of risk management services, helping customers to safely and responsibly improve their business performance. DNV is an independent foundation with the purpose of safeguarding life, property and the environment. Through its network of 300 offices in 100 countries, the company serves a range of industries, with a special focus on the maritime and energy sectors, combining its technology expertise with its industry knowledge.
Due to DNV’s in-depth knowledge and role as independent partner, the company facilitates a great number of joint industry projects each year, many of them aimed specifically at developing standards. DNV’s role for 143 years has been to assist in solving the challenges faced by business and society. Developing new tools, methodologies, standards, and recommended practices together with industry and authorities is exactly about solving these challenges.
DNV has considerable expertise in wind energy and is the world’s leading provider of services to the wind power industry. The DNV standard DNV-OS-J101, was introduced due to there being no specific structural standard for offshore wind installations, so DNV helped the industry find the right safety level. Since 2004, DNV-OS-J101 is the most used design standard for offshore wind. DNV has wind experts located in
https://www.dnv.com/industry/energy/segments/wind_wave_tidal/index.asp
Contacts:
Tove Feld, project responsible, Tove.Feld@dnv.com, +45 21 74 48 38
Thomas Boehme, project manager, Thomas.Boehme@dnv.com, +44 7824 383318