The increasing demand for connectivity presents a challenge for energy providers in the offshore wind environment. With expensive roll out of terrestrial services, many wind energy companies are finding satellite solutions a cost-effective and easy to install alternative.
The Challenge
A leading Norwegian offshore wind provider recently required an all-encompassing connectivity service for its maritime operations in the North Sea. It was of the utmost importance that the company’s fleet of state-of-the-art service vessels would enjoy the highest level of connectivity with added services to reduce levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for offshore wind.
The service was required to deliver connectivity to the provider’s first two newbuilds of a series of Walk-to-Work Commissioning Service Operations Vessels (“CSOV”). The vessels are designed to play an important role in the safe commissioning of offshore wind turbines.
The Solution
AXESS Maritime tailored a solution that would provide the company with a hybrid VSAT service, to ensure seamless connectivity allowing for a separate crew and client network to be powered by ST Engineering iDirect’s Evolution platform. The solution would equally offer the vessels the ability to up- and downgrade on demand with the added flexibility to choose the exact bandwidth speed required.
Evolution is an IP-based satellite communications platform engineered to deliver the highest quality connectivity wherever and whenever it’s needed. The platform is open, efficient and easily scalable, lowering the total cost of ownership. Evolution allows AXESS Maritime to manage operational and capital costs effectively and create unique value for customers. The fundamental value of Evolution lies in the extremely tight integration of the hardware and software architecture with a dynamic feature set that makes it highly flexible in its ability to handle diverse market needs. This enables everything from basic Internet and VoIP to highly sophisticated application such as video conferencing and digital signage in fixed and mobile environments.
With the support of Evolution, satellite service providers are in a position to make the best decisions when allocating bandwidth and customize service offerings and service level agreements (SLAs).
Evolution plays an important part in meeting the complex needs of a multitude of customers running thousands of vessel applications throughout the world.
The Outcome
The partnership between AXESS Maritime and ST Engineering iDirect, has provided the company with a strong regional network supporting the vessels high-throughput requirement to deliver critical connectivity to its fleet of SOV vessels.
The network solution ensures that the vessels can access vital applications required to support commissioning works during the construction of wind farms, as well as supporting operations and maintenance during the lifetime of offshore wind farms.
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