Electric lifeboats lead the charge to offshore safety

Confirming that the project was no one-off, VIKING has since gone on to secure allelectric lifeboat projects 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 (Figure 2) – 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

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. 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.

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 which evolved out of the NOROG (Norske Oil and Gas -formerly OLF) industry group in 2005. 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 (Figure 3) provided by VIKING Norsafe for the Njord A and for the Hugin A and B projects also merit separate attention in the safety context. 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. Today, 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.

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 allelectric propulsion would mitigate risk.

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.