When Aker Kvaerner began work to extend the life of Equinor’s Njord A floating and drilling platform in the Norwegian North Sea to 2040, the upgrade included the replacement of the existing evacuation system with a set of modern 70-person free-fall lifeboats and a custom-designed davit system.
Part way through the project, developers further updated their thinking, in a switch away from conventional diesel engines, which also brought VIKING Life-Saving Equipment its first order for E-GES-52 (Electrical Gravity Escape System) free-fall lifeboats.
Electrical propulsion for lifeboats
Fast forward and the Njord A installation features lifeboats that are documented to meet DNV
The technology had become available after a successful three-year project between Statoil (now Equinor) and Norsafe (now part of VIKING Life-Saving Equipment) to establish a technology qualification and viability evaluation of electrical propulsion for lifeboats.
Fast forward and the Njord A installation features lifeboats that are documented to meet DNV Battery Installations on vessels of less than 15 m in length – including full fire propagation testing – and SOLAS Novel Design Resolution A.520(13), as documented by the Norwegian Maritime Authority.
Electric SOLAS rescue boat
Confirming that the project was no one-off, VIKING has since gone on to secure an electric lifeboat project for an operator in the Western Australia offshore sector and for Aker BP’s Hugin A and Hugin B platforms – part of the Yggdrasil Norwegian Continental Shelf development 160 km west of Kollsnes, near Bergen.
All-electric power is increasingly accepted as a viable solution for boat operators, with advances in battery technology also pointing toward more powerful performance from similarly sized units as power density increases. VIKING already offers the E-Mako-655 – the world’s first all-electric SOLAS rescue boat, whose 63 kWh battery pack offers four hours of continuous operations at 6 knots with a crew
of three personnel.
Smooth operations
Battery power allows the asset owner to dispense with the need to transport, store
Electric propulsion also offers operational safety benefits that lifeboat specifiers in particular will wish to consider. These include lower levels of vibration, a quieter cabin with much better air quality, increased acceleration, and higher top speeds – thereby transporting evacuees more comfortably and quickly away from the platform in an emergency when compared to diesel-powered boats.
Battery power allows the asset owner to dispense with the need to transport, store, and handle diesel fuel on the platform, and avoids issues with fuel contamination altogether.
Broader set of safety-based reasons
A further benefit for operators working in areas affected by H2S gas clouds (sour gas environments) is that, as the battery is the entire power resource, there is no need to draw exterior air when the lifeboat is in operation. This means the boat can operate autonomously for up to two hours, compared to 10 minutes for a diesel boat.
But these factors are only part of a broader set of safety-based reasons that suggest all-electric propulsion is worthy of wider consideration.
VIKING’s GES free-fall lifeboats
Structural part of VIKING’s GES free-fall lifeboats provides an early example of the new generation
Many market watchers will know that innovations in Norway’s well-funded and safety-aware offshore industry are often adopted by others once they have proved their relevance. One basis for wider adoption is the forward-looking stance Norwegian stakeholders take with respect to safety standards and certification.
In an indicative development, the structural part of VIKING’s GES free-fall lifeboats provides an early example of the new generation of designs that evolved out of the NOROG (Norske Oil and Gas -formerly OLF) industry group in 2005.
VIKING Norsafe for the Njord A
The most extensive study ever undertaken of conventional and free-fall lifeboat safety, this project eventually resulted in DNVGLST-E406 – the lifeboat performance standard that goes far beyond the Convention of the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and specifies no harmful accelerations in up to 100-year storm conditions.
The compact, low-weight davit installations provided by VIKING Norsafe for the Njord A and for the Hugin A and B projects also merit separate attention in the safety context.
Maritime regulations
VIKING’s commitment to include operator preferences for simplified operations
Both have been built to the NORSOK 002 standard – whose methodology includes dynamic considerations that build on crane-based safety rules, as well as being rooted in maritime regulations and VIKING’s commitment to include operator preferences for simplified operations.
It is in this context that the shift to electric lifeboat propulsion should be further studied because the selection of battery power has also been made on grounds of improved reliability, reduced accident risk, easier maintenance, and through-life cost savings.
Remote risks
Pressure to reduce the number of personnelworking at sea or offshore is nothing new, but recent developments in connectivity, digitalization, and remote management techniques have allowed asset managers to step up efforts to automate processes, and control others from afar. Now, many offshore platforms are not normally crewed.
At the same time, in being formulated for diesel engines, the maintenance procedures for lifeboats within SOLAS demand that engines are turned over for a five-minute run test every 14 days to ensure readiness for action.
Specificity of the requirement
The specificity of the requirement brings into focus the accident risks that maintenance engineers
The specificity of the requirement brings into focus the accident risks that maintenance engineers are exposed to in landing on the platform, and when working on lifeboats in their tilted launch position.
Where readiness for action is concerned, it is also understood that an engine tilted at an angle of up to 35 degrees and cold-started every two weeks will lose performance over time. It is fair to assert that the use of all-electric propulsion would mitigate risk.
E-GES-45 free-fall lifeboats
The E-GES-45 free-fall lifeboats, for 60 person, and E-GES-52 free-fall lifeboats are typically powered by three Akasol batteries, which are contained in robust, waterproof cases, with individual cells thermally insulated.
The solution also includes a ventilation system, gas/smoke detection, and a water sprinkler system.
Connected to safety
The lifeboats on board Njord A have self-diagnostic programmable logic controller systems
With electric systems wholly compatible with remote maintenance, equivalence also means land-based checks of operating systems are sufficient to give assurance that the boat’s propulsion system is available on arrival on board not normally crewed platforms.
The lifeboats on board Njord A have self-diagnostic programmable logic controller systems, with each boat connected to an individual email address that alerts maintenance teams of any issues, or trend deviations on temperature, charge, gases, or fumes. In a real incident, the boat informed the team that attendance was needed to deal with a malfunctioning battery charger.
Diesel-powered lifeboat
As well as eliminating the risks brought by physically entering the lifeboat, the use of remote diagnostics, maintenance, and control methods can extend the requirement for service engineers to attend the lifeboat from once every 14 days into an annual visit.
Overall, the maintenance work required to support a diesel-powered lifeboat is estimated at over 300 hours in a year. With tests of the deluge systems, steering systems, and hook release systems also remote, and the boat launch simulated, analysis indicates that the same procedures for an electric lifeboat can be accomplished in 90% less time.
