GE’s Power Conversion business has again demonstrated its strength in this sector by winning a contract for the supply of dynamic positioning (DP) for a vessel Floating Accommodation Unit that Cosco (Nantong) Shipyard in Nantong City, China, is building for Logitel Offshore, the Singapore-based floating logistics and accommodation rig owner that has an exclusive license agreement to use the proprietary Sevan Marine design within the floating accommodation market. The complete project includes a C-Series Class 3 DP system and manual thruster control system.


Sevan Marine specializes in units with cylindrical hulls, but until now it has used the design only for Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) units and deep water Mobile Offshore Drilling Units (MODU). This is the first time that the Sevan design is used as a cylindrical accommodation vessel.


Sevan hulls are suitable for operation in water depths of more than 3,000 meters, and the units are designed to operate in extreme conditions. This puts a particular emphasis on the DP system. GE is up to the task: the DP system for the new accommodation vessel complies with DNV’s DYNPOS-AUTRO notation.


Compliance with DYNPOS-AUTRO means the DP system has a very high level of design redundancy featuring, for example, an alternate backup control position in addition to the primary control position. The accommodation unit is therefore designed to remain under effective position control following even the most extreme single failures of equipment or the spaces in which the equipment is located.


GE called upon a global team of its engineering and system specialists to obtain the contract and to deliver these mission-critical position control systems, coordinating input from GE offices in China, Norway and the U.K. The control systems will be delivered and integrated into the accommodation vessel in time for its delivery around the middle of 2014.