MHCC is an exclusive project for SeaPlanner, and includes unique solutions for creating a centralized hub to manage DONG Energy’s UK offshore wind-farm construction.
SeaPlanner, a part of the SeaRoc Group that provides consulting and contracting services and products for the offshore renewable industry, has been awarded the system provider position by DONG Energy (DE) for their Marine and Helicopter Coordination Centre (MHCC). The centre will serve as one centralized hub for their UK offshore wind farm construction and a number of regional operations.
The MHCC project uses SeaPlanner’s latest enhancements that set out to centralize, standardize, automate, and make equipment easily deployable and support far offshore projects to save costs and ensure safety from day one for the people working offshore.
DONG Energy selected SeaPlanner after a detailed tender process and after having thoroughly assessed the market for a solution that encompassed all the exacting requirements of the project portfolio. SeaPlanner will provide DONG Energy with personnel management, vessel and helicopter tracking, and the communication dispatcher and site wide communications hardware (TETRA, VHF marine, VHF airband) needed to safely operate an offshore construction site from a central location.
SeaPlanner will also be deploying several unmanned communications containers. The containers will house all equipment and antennae required to carry out communications on far offshore wind farms, including vessel tracking, VHF marine and airband, Tetra, helicopter tracking and crewfinder. The containers contain several self-contained safety systems, such as fire suppression, gas detection, climate control, and others.
These systems can all be monitored from the SeaPlanner software. The container will be suitable for applications on guard vessels and offshore platforms.
SeaPlanner will provide DONG Energy with personnel management, vessel and helicopter tracking, and the communication dispatcher and site wide communications hardware needed to safely operate an offshore construction site from a central location.
The MHCC will include SeaPlanner hardware and software combined to fulfill the following main purposes:
- Offshore management system enabling centralized and regional support of the individual offshore sites simultaneously from standardized workstations.
- Enable marine, helicopter, and personnel coordination across all sites.
- Enable voice communication between personnel offshore, vessels, helicopters, and a central coordination centre across sites.
- Manage people, vessels, helicopters, and personnel transfer to and from sites based on transport requests and access rights.
- Provide communication and sensor platforms and containers on multiple sites for central situational awareness and radio communication.
- Support a satellite and Tetra communication based Crew Transport Terminal on vessels and helipads for automatic people location tracking and text messaging.
“SeaPlanner has undergone significant development over the last 12 months,” said Nick Murphy, SeaPlanner Head of Operations. “As the industry has evolved, we’ve seen the demand for more extensive and complex solutions from our clients and we have invested heavily in our products and services to ensure that we meet those needs. The introduction of SeaPlanner’s portfolio management functionality is a significant benefit, particularly on a project of this scale.”
He added: “Giving the DONG Energy project team the ability to manage multiple sites from a centralized system not only saves a considerable amount of administration time and costs, but it also provides an enhanced level of control and brings project standardization across projects.”
This contract extends SeaPlanner’s portfolio with DONG Energy, which has now provided support to over 80% of their UK offshore wind farms.
Louise Damgaard, Senior Project Manager at DONG Energy, said: “We’re very pleased to work with SeaPlanner to implement these important enhancements to our new Marine and Offshore Coordination capability. They’ve undertaken work for our projects in the past and this contract proves that having a reliable UK supplier is an invaluable asset to offshore wind in this country.”
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