Advanced marine management and communication system
Published: 14 December, 2022
RWE’s Sofia Offshore Wind Farm has contracted Norwegian technology company Vissim AS to deliver an advanced marine management and communication system.
Under the contract, Vissim will provide its marine optimisation and planning software for far-shore offshore wind farms, and a comprehensive communication, sensor and networking package. The solution includes Software as a Service (SaaS) certification and induction management, permit to work and daily progress reporting. This is fully integrated with Vissim’s real-time decision support framework, including vessel, aircraft and automated personnel tracking, working weather windows and warning-management options.
Sofia’s deputy general site manager (Offshore), Ben Simpson, who is managing the contract, explained the nature of the project:
“Everything about Sofia is bigger, further from shore and more technically challenging than our previous wind farms. We need robust and proven marine management and communication systems, but we also need our team to work alongside software innovators to identify and deliver workflow efficiencies - and Vissim has solid experience in both these areas.”
Alongside their VTMS5 and OSEM software suite, Vissim will deploy onshore, vessel-based and fully autonomous foundation-based sensor and communication hubs, networked to both onshore and vessel-based control rooms.
“Working far-shore brings unique challenges” says Nicholas Dent, managing director – Global Wind, at Vissim.
“To deliver consistent communications - from the blue-ocean project phase, right through to the full operation of the windfarm - requires engineering ingenuity and accomplished project management. Vissim has honed these skills over many years and more than 30 offshore windfarms. We’ve also developed software especially suited to far-shore operations – providing opportunities for real-time deviation alerting and automated reporting. It’s remarkable to think that, with this new contract award, we are now supporting the construction of a total of 5GW of offshore windfarms on a single sandbank in the North Sea. We continue to grow our UK East Coast presence to support these projects.”
Vissim’s contract is aligned with the offshore construction period of the Sofia project, which will feature 100 SG 14-222 DD wind turbines and is scheduled to be fully commissioned in 2026. Once constructed, Sofia will generate enough green power to supply the equivalent of around 1.2 million homes.
Vissim is a software developer and turnkey sensor and infrastructure provider for advanced marine optimisation systems around the globe. The company is headquartered in Horten, Norway, and has offices in the UK and Slovakia, in addition to a global partner network.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/vissim-as/
- Photo from Dogger Bank (credit: RWE)
