24 May 2018
This week, international marine constructor Van Oord has deployed the Bravenes, one of the most innovative subsea rock installation vessels in the world. Electrical installation company Bakker Sliedrecht functioned as the coordinating contractor in the installation and the integration of the advanced technology that makes the vessel special.
Thanks to a movable fallpipe tower, the Bravenes is equipped to perform three different types of rock installation on the sea bottom, namely the fallpipe through the moon pool, a fallpipe over the side or a tremie pipe over the side. This third ship configuration allows the vessel to install rock very close to offshore platforms, wind turbines or deep-sea cables and powerlines. To avoid collisions, it is of great importance that the ship remains stable and in its place at all times, even with high waves and rough weather conditions.
To guarantee pinpoint accuracy, the Braveness is designed with a dynamic-positioning system 2 and 3 (DP 2 and 3), with four thrusters at the front and two at the rear, holding the 154 meters long and 28 meters wide vessel in place and allow it to safely operate close to offshore structures. For the DP system, Bakker Sliedrecht had to double install all electro-technical installations and drive systems. If the energy on one side of the system fails, the other side takes over and the vessels stays in position.
Another innovative technology that Bakker Sliedrecht supplied are the active filter solutions in combination with the electric drive systems. They save space and energy and prevent harmonic distortion and thus the risk of energy losses, failure of electronic equipment and overload.
Equipment in the fallpipe tower is partly driven by frequency drives supplied by Bakker Sliedrecht. The company also supplied the other installations for the entire ship: from generators to switchboards.
During the construction, Bakker Sliedrecht was responsible for the integration of all electrical systems and the coordination of participating E-parties. Van Oord had the Bravenes built at the Sinopacific Shipbuilding’s Ningbo shipyard in China. ,,We functioned as a linchpin, coordinating all E-parties involved and ensuring that all electrical systems were connected and that everything worked,” says project manager Niels van Vliet of Bakker Sliedrecht. ,,The ship was designed in Europe and built on a Chinese shipyard. With many different systems and different suppliers. It was our job to coordinate all of that for the E-scope.”
The Chinese yard delivered the Bravenes for deployment to Van Oord after which the vessel was named and launched in Rotterdam on 21 May 2018. With the Bravenes, the marine constructor introduces a new level of innovation in the subsea rock installation sector.
