UK: SeaPlanner to become system provider for DONG Energy

SeaPlanner has been announced as the system provider by DONG Energy (DE) for their Marine and Helicopter Coordination Centre (MHCC) which will be one centralised hub for their UK offshore wind farm construction and a number of regional Operations MHCCs.

The MHCC project utilises SeaPlanner’s latest enhancements that set out to centralise, standardise, automate and make equipment easily deployable and support far offshore projects in order to save cost and ensure safety from day one for the people working offshore.

DONG Energy selected SeaPlanner after a detailed tender process 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 be deploying several unmanned communications containers. The containers will house all equipment required, including antennae, to carry out all communications on far offshore windfarms including vessel tracking, VHF marine and airband, Tetra, helicopter tracking and crewfinder. The containers contain several self-contained safety systems including fire suppression, gas detection, climate control and more - these systems can all be monitored from the SeaPlanner software. The container will be suitable for applications on guard vessels and offshore platforms.

The MHCC will include SeaPlanner hardware and software combined to fulfil the following main purposes:

• Offshore management system enabling centralised and regional support of the individual offshore sites simultaneously from standardised 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/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.

This contract extends SeaPlanner’s portfolio with DONG Energy, which has now provided support to over 80% of their UK offshore wind farms.

Nick Murphy, SeaPlanner Head of Operations commented: “SeaPlanner has undergone significant development over the last 12 months. 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. Giving the DONG Energy project team the ability to manage multiple sites from a centralised system not only saves a considerable amount of administration time and costs, but it also provides an enhanced level of control and brings project standardisation across projects.”

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.”