Ørsted has signed a 15-year contract with Ta San Shang Marine, chartering the shipping company to build the world’s first-ever Taiwan-flagged service operation vessel (SOV) for the operation and maintenance of Ørsted’s Greater Changhua offshore wind farms.
“This charter contract represents the first-ever bespoke SOV in Taiwan and in Asia Pacific. It signifies that Ørsted continues to invest significantly in the Taiwan market, both financially and by transferring its world-leading O&M expertise,” the wind farm developer said.
Scheduled for delivery in early 2022, the SOV will use the Port of Taichung as its base port, where Ørsted’s future O&M facilities will be located, due to its proximity to the sites, water depths for accommodating deep-draft vessels, and navigational access.
The SOV will be utilized to provide top-quality O&M services for the Greater Changhua offshore wind farms, which will be located 35 to 60 kilometers off the Changhua coastline.
According to Ørsted, the SOV is the first to be built to fit the complicated and harsh environment in the Taiwan Strait. It will house up to 60 technicians plus the crew and will only need to return to shore once a month. The smaller crew transfer vessels (CTVs), also used to facilitate O&M activities, can only carry a maximum of 24 people and have to return to shore on a daily basis.
Also, the SOV will be equipped with a motion-compensated gangway to enable technicians to ‘walk to work’. The SOV will also use a dynamic positioning system to automatically maintain its position and a 3D motion-compensated crane to mitigate wind induced motions on the loads to further ensure that technicians can carry out maintenance in a safe environment.