Third party marine energy verification goes full circle

 
A new third party verification service dubbed 360 TPV – specifically aimed at the marine and offshore renewables market – has been launched by Orcades Marine Management Consultants with partners Aquatera and Dynamic Systems Analysis.

The 360 TPV is said to be a holistic approach to readiness assurance covering engineering design, manufacture, marine operations, regulatory and license compliance, as well as cost effectiveness and investability, and other factors, that can also be combined with insurance warranty requirements for increased effectiveness, according to the developers.

The service is primarily targeted at technology and project developers to help them better comply with the requirements of licensing regulations and insurance cover, and according to the service developers, the 360 TPV has already been provided to a number of wave and tidal technology developers.

Dave Thomson, who is leading the 360 TPV initiative, said: “Over the last decades we have seen many new technologies at sea and projects being proposed where there were identifiable and foreseeable issues that were not picked up or recognized through the traditional TPV and assurance processes.

“Some of these were risks and failures, others were opportunities and improvements – the key point is that they were all missed! This has led to the marine and offshore energy sectors experiencing significant extra cost and lost opportunities. 360 TPV has been established to redress this record and to put the technology and project development pathway onto a much surer footing.”

Gareth Stockman, Chief Executive Officer of Welsh-based wave energy developer Marine Power Systems, said: “Orcades Marine were appointed by Marine Power Systems to provide third party verification and marine warranty services for our 1:4 scale WaveSub wave energy converter built in Pembroke and installed at FaBTest in Cornwall.

“The holistic approach to third party verification which surpassed requirements and is provided by Orcades Marine, suited our purposes very well and when combined with marine warranty requirements also made the whole engagement more efficient. As well as complying with the regulatory needs, the good technical input, pragmatic approach and prompt feedback helped the whole process to proceed smoothly and effectively.”