On August 16, ordered by Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as “Shanghai Electric Wind Power”) to be built by ZPMC, Zhizhen 100 and Zhicheng 60, Asia's first wind power SOVs, were named and delivered in Qidong, Jiangsu Province.

Zhizhen 100 has a length overall of 93.4 meters, a beam of 18 meters, a depth of 7.6 meters and a design service speed of 12.3 knots; Zhicheng 60 has a length overall of 72.76 meters, a beam of 17.5 meters, a depth of 7 meters and a design service speed of 12 knots. These two special high-efficiency vessels can carry out continuous O&M operations in deep and distant sea wind farms in an efficient, green, intelligent and safe manner. Equipped with a DP2 power positioning system, they not only have large cargo space to store wind turbine spare parts and large loading capacity, but also possess a self supportability of more than 30 days in unrestricted navigation areas.

They also have an active wave compensation trestle, a key equipment which can overcome the impact of wave-induced hull displacement and attitude changes, realizing efficient transfer of personnel and O&M spare parts and wind farm maintenance operations under harsh sea conditions, and significantly extending the window period for vessel operation and maintenance. Furthermore, the two vessels are equipped with folding-arm offshore cranes, O&M submarines, boarding racks and aluminum alloy helicopter platforms. Adopting diesel-electric and lithium battery hybrid solutions, they are equipped with all-electric propulsion systems and DC bus distribution systems, and have obtained the hybrid and green ship classification from the China Classification Society (CCS). In addition, they are equipped with advanced intelligent O&M systems, which can effectively improve the efficiency of O&M and reduce the intensity of work.

It is worth mentioning that the active wave compensation trestle is the most critical core equipment for wind power SOVs. Through the joint efforts of the technical teams of Shanghai Electric Wind Power and ZPMC, Zhicheng 60 successfully applied the first retractable trestle with wave compensation function in China. It provides two connection modes, namely, top leaning and hovering, for the transfer of personnel or equipment and maintenance operations in harsh sea conditions, and the safety performance and working efficiency are much higher than those of conventional operation and maintenance vessels, which is a major breakthrough in the localized core equipment for marine engineering.

The offshore wind power SOV can greatly alleviate the pain points of the current Chinese mainstream offshore transportation vessels, such as short window period, operation interruption, frequent trips, low efficiency, poor applicability to harsh sea conditions, etc., and provide strong support for the operation and maintenance of deep and distant sea projects. It is currently one of the best solutions for deep and distant sea operation and maintenance in the world and a forward-looking step taken by Shanghai Electric Wind Power to exploit the deep and distant sea.