Fire and Blast Protection for Offshore Substations
2nd December 2008
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SCS announces ProTek™ Composite Fire and Blast Protection for Offshore Wind Farms
Solent Composite Systems Ltd (SCS) manufacturer of ProTek™ passive fire and blast protection systems has announced an innovative new fire and blast protection system for the emerging new market in offshore substations for offshore wind farms.
In this year the 20th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster we are reminded of the need to pay ever greater vigilance to the safety of critical assets and personnel in hazardous areas – SCS building on its long experience in the oil and gas sector now delivers the solution to critical asset protection and loss prevention for the wind energy sector.
The advent of large scale offshore wind farms – especially those further offshore is calling on advanced new and more sophisticated transmission and distribution technology for connection to the grid. Many of these systems utilise high voltage DC transmission HVDC, that ultimately will form part of the Supergrid. This will enable Europe to trade their energy multilaterally and thus contribute to increased energy security across the network.
The announcement of the UK Round 3 facilitating 25GW of new offshore wind by 2020, will advance a new era off offshore substation technology, and simultaneously a need to keep that energy transmission safe and secure.
The SCS design team understand the hazardous environment offshore and in addition to protecting critical equipment from fire and blast has learned to design for this harsh environment - all kinds of inclement weather –wide temperature range, relentless salt spray and corrosion risk throughout the platform’s life – typically 30 years. In addition today the environment in which we live and work must be protected so pollution prevention is high on the list of risk mitigation.
Like oil and gas platforms space management is at a premium on an offshore substation and the SCS structural composite solution provides optimum packaging with no compromise of health and safety. Each area is carefully assessed for fire and explosion risk and designed accordingly. Whilst the risk profile is lower than a jet fire on an oil platform , there remains a defined risk of pool fire conditions and blast pressures of up to 1Barg- a level readily accommodated by the ProTek™ system – a light weight composite structure, that can be easily assembled onshore or offshore.
The size and complexity of offshore substations demands that the investment is safeguarded and the personnel who maintain them can work safely in low risk environment. Protective enclosures for transformers and other critical equipment as well as walk-ways and escape-ways provide an economic solution requiring no routine maintenance and therefore low life cycle cost.
SCS has been providing protection of critical assets off shore for 18 years in the Oil and Gas industry where fire and explosion risks are part of daily operation risk management and loss prevention.
SCS has a proven track record of providing engineered composite solutions to the energy industry – not only offshore, but wind and tidal stream where it provides a portfolio of services in design, engineering and manufacture of wind turbine blade moulds and components.
SCS energy industry expertise coupled with world class Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental standards, enables it to take on major projects and take them thorough to timely and cost effective completion.
SCS holds a DNV certified integrated management system incorporating ISO 9001, ISO 14001and OHSAS 18001.SCS is registered Achilles JQS and FPAL
Solent Composite Systems operates from Cowes on the Isle of Wight in the UK
Further information, photos and images from:
Huw Radley
Managing Director
Solent Composite Systems Ltd
Victoria Barracks
Albany Road
East Cowes, IOW
PO32 6AA
United Kingdom
Tel: +44(0)1983 292602 or +44(0)7770 731067
E-mail: huw@solentcomposites.com
URL: www.solentcomposites.com
Further Information>> www.solentcomposites.com
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