Vard Electro books ESS order with Siem Offshore

The contract covers Vard Electro’s SeaQ Energy Storage System (ESS) with two battery packs and a DC link. The order with Siem Offshore represents Vard Electro’s largest battery package order for a vessel retrofit. 

The system also comprises energy management system (EMS), energy storage inverter, filter and/or transformer, fire detection, and a cooling & ventilation system. The system will be installed in the first quarter of 2022 on one of Siem Offshore’s OSCVs that will work in the offshore wind sector. 

Vard Electro will act as system integrator for the turnkey project. The scope of the project covers the engineering, installation, integration, testing, and commissioning of the system.

The system will enable the vessel to operate in fully electric mode with zero emissions while manoeuvring in harbour or other restricted areas and will deliver estimated fuel savings of up to 20%, according to Vard Electro Head of Commercial Sales, Gisle Anderssen.

The battery storage will be used as a spinning reserve in place of generator sets, enabling the vessel to run on fewer engines with more optimal load while still maintaining the requirement for redundancy.

Anderssen says there is increasing demand for such hybrid retrofits both for offshore support vessels such as PSVs as well as larger ships, with Vard Electro’s modular system highly adaptable for ease of installation on a wide variety of vessels with minimal downtime.