A consortium led by French information technology company Atos has been selected by Iberdrola's Ailes Marines to implement mission-critical communications solutions and ensure marine coordination activities for the 496 MW Bay of Saint Brieuc offshore wind farm project in France.
With construction work on the farm set to begin in the first semester of 2021, Atos will ensure that all activities at sea are run seamlessly, the company said.
Atos said Tuesday it would implement a full operational marine coordination center located in Pleudaniel (Brittany, France) to coordinate, monitor and document all traffic in and around the construction area, operating 24/7 during the construction stage.
"While building and managing a wind farm of 103 km2 is a very complex process where many operators and organizations are circulating in the offshore site, the Atos solution enables Ailes Marines to ensure that all of its on-site operations run smoothly and that only authorized people and equipment circulate in the area," Atos said,
The center will enable Ailes Marines’ teams to register and track vessels and their crew in real-time "for ultimate on-site security, to ensure safety of the offshore operations in the farm (including a ‘Permit to work’ system) or to plan and monitor offshore activities according to the weather forecast."
For this coordination center, Atos will work in partnership with SeaRenergy, a provider of engineering services as well as offshore marine, QHSE and staffing solutions for the offshore wind industry. In this project, SeaRenergy will provide marine management personnel.
Voice communication platform
Furthermore, Atos said it would set up a unified critical voice communication platform that will allow helicopters, ships, and operational teams working on the offshore wind farm to communicate between them or with the coordination center, in and around the wind farm.
"In a unpredictable environment, 16,3 km away from the shore, where the usual telecom networks do not work, the Atos solution is designed in such a way that communication between operators is guaranteed in all conditions, using satellite telephones as back up, and can be used to manage incidents and emergencies," Atos said.
Both systems will remain operational after the construction stage and will support Ailes Marines throughout the exploitation phase when the 62 Siemens Gamesa SG 8.0-167 DD offshore wind turbines will be operational.
The Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm will be built by Ailes Marines – fully owned by Spanish renewables giant Iberdrola- in the bay of Saint-Brieuc, Brittany, 16.3 kilometers off the coast.
When completed, the 496 MW wind farm will produce 1,820 GWh per year, which is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 835,000 inhabitants.
The foundation installation works will start in the first semester of 2021; the wind farm will be fully operational in 2023.
2The contract with Atos and SeaRenergy will result in the creation of 10 skilled jobs in France. Atos will also mobilize approximately 10 people for the installation phase of the technical equipment," Atos said.