ORPC Delivers First US Tide-Generated Power
To Grid in Maine
Bangor Hydro Electric Co. (Bangor, Maine) verified last week that electricity is being delivered to its power grid from the TidGen turbine generator unit installed at the Ocean Renewable Power Co., or ORPC, (Portland, Maine) Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Project.

This is the first power generated from any ocean energy project, including offshore wind, wave and tidal, to be delivered to an electric utility grid in the U.S., and it is the only ocean energy project, other than one using a dam, that delivers power to a utility grid anywhere in North, Central and South America, according to ORPC.

This first TidGen device has a peak output of 180 kilowatts and will generate enough electricity annually to power 25 to 30 homes. Two additional TidGen devices will be installed at ORPC’s Cobscook Bay site in the fall of 2013.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission had approved in April the basic terms of a 20-year power purchase agreement for ORPC’s Maine Tidal Energy Project, which includes the Cobscook Bay Project, with Central Maine Power Co. (Augusta, Maine), Bangor Hydro Electric and Maine Public Service Co. (Presque Isle, Maine).

Caption: ORPC's TidGen turbine generator unit being readied for installation at Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Project site.

Source: ORPC press release

Shell Puts Arctic Drilling Plans on Hold
Royal Dutch Shell plc (The Hague, Netherlands) on Monday suspended drilling for oil offshore Alaska after it found that the containment dome aboard the Arctic Challenger barge was damaged during final testing of its Arctic containment system. 

Over the past week, Shell has completed a series of tests of the first-ever Arctic Containment System. However, during a final stage of testing off the coast of Bellingham, Washington, the containment dome aboard the Arctic Challenger was damaged. Shell said it is now inspecting the dome to determine the cause and the extent of the damage.

Shell's other drillship, the Noble Discoverer, is expected to resume its position and drilling operations over the Burger A prospect. Shell will still begin to drill wells, known as "top holes," which will be capped and temporarily abandoned this year, as time remaining in this season allows. Shell plans to begin exploratory drilling in the Beaufort Sea at the conclusion of the fall whale hunt and the anticipated receipt of a top-hole drilling permit.

Caption: The Noble Discoverer in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

Source: Royal Dutch Shell plc press release

Mariscope Launches ROV Comander MK II SF
Mariscope Meerestechnik (Osdorf, Germany) launched last week the Comander MK II SF (Super Fast), one of the fastest observation class vehicles on the market that can travel up to 7 knots.

The Comander MK II SF was tested during trials carried out with the German Customs Brigade in Hamburg, Germany. In order to test the performance of the vehicle, the trials were carried out in Hamburg’s harbor, located at the Elbe River. Since this port is near the North Sea, it is influenced by tidal currents. The vehicle was operated during high tide and in areas of maximum current velocity.

The vehicle showed that not only was it able to withstand the current of the river, but it was also capable of navigating against it. Due to the increases in power, the vehicle showed stability, even working with extreme transversal currents.

The main applications of the Comander MK II SF are in the aquaculture industry, offshore wind parks, river operations, tunnels and channels. Observation-class ROVs often lack the power for these kinds of operations and work-class ROVs are too big in size and costs.

Caption: The Comander MK II SF was tested in the Elbe River in Germany.

Source: Mariscope press release

Saab Seaeye Unveils New Cougar ROV Skid Design
Saab Seaeye (Fareham, England) has added a new skid design concept that enables its Cougar XTi ROV to carry out subsea Christmas tree installations and other tasks, meaning a small electric ROV can be deployed in the support role rather than a large hydraulic work-class vehicle.

Skids can be fitted with work-scope tools, such as a class-1-to-4 torque tool, 350-bar seawater hot stab, manipulators, and high-pressure water jet and rotary brush for cleaning work.

Fitted with this skid system, the Cougar XTi can fulfill the scope of work typically undertaken by the hydraulic work-class vehicle that usually supports the primary work-class ROV and commissioning module combination during the Christmas tree installation.

After giving observation support to the interconnection procedure, the Cougar can undertake the other tasks of the support work-class vehicle in the commissioning process, such as cleaning, operating valves and hot-stab work.

Each onboard device is managed through an intelligent three-mode distributed plug-and-go control system. The first mode controls the device, the second provides the diagnostics, and the third is used for configuration.

Rated to 3,000 meters, the six-thruster Cougar XTi also has a thinner umbilical—down from a typical 32 millimeters in diameter to 20 millimeters—and a new autopilot system that gives the operator more precise positioning by automatically holding depth and heading in tighter parameters.

Caption: Cougar XTi skid built for Aker Solutions with dual five-function manipulators and cleaning brush with water jet attached.

Source: Saab Seaeye press release.

OceanWorks International Contracted
For FORCE Tidal Energy System
OceanWorks International (Burnaby, Canada) has been awarded a contract by the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) to instrument a cable termination for a tidal energy project in the Bay of Fundy.

The project, which OceanWorks announced on Tuesday, includes the design, manufacture and integration of the subsea instrumentation, shore station and commissioning.

FORCE is deploying four power cables to connect prototype in-stream tidal turbines to a dedicated electrical substation. This infrastructure is meant to lower the barrier to entry for turbine manufactures to test their equipment in one of the most demanding tidal environments.

The planned deployment will take place in Atlantic Canada’s Bay of Fundy. The first of the four cables will be equipped with cable termination instrumentation, which is provided by OceanWorks International. This will add valuable information on the behavior and likely lifetime of the cables that are essential for the connection of turbines to the electrical grid and ultimately to the end customers for the delivery of clean power.

The Canadian government, the province of Nova Scotia, Encana Corp. (Calgary, Canada) and participating developers have provided funding for the project.

Caption: The OceanWorks subsea cable termination sensor package. Together with the surface equipment rack that records the data and supplies power to the sensor package, these devices make up the cable abandonment termination monitoring program.

Source: OceanWorks International press release

Tesla Offshore LLC Names Director of Geoscience
Nathaniel "Nat" Usher has joined Tesla Offshore LLC (Prairieville, Louisiana) as director of geoscience at the beginning of September.

For the past 30 years, Usher has worked for ARCO/BP (La Palma, California). He plans to assist Tesla in optimizing use of technology in its geophysical survey operations and to further develop geohazards interpretation services.

Usher began his career specializing in data acquisition, including: 2D and 3D seismic (onshore and offshore), vertical seismic profiles, geotechnical, metocean, aeromagnetic, geochemical, geobotany and geohazards. His primary focus then shifted to marine geohazards and high-resolution seismic surveying.

Active throughout the oil and gas industry, Usher has been recognized as an industry authority regarding marine geohazards identification and mitigation. He has served on several panels for the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Mineral Management Service (now the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management). He has served on the U.S. Department of Energy’s methane hydrates research steering committee. A licensed professional geoscientist by the state of Texas, Usher has a bachelor's and master's from the University of Michigan.

Caption: Nathaniel "Nat" Usher.

Source: Tesla Offshore LLC press release

Q&A: Jerry Bridges, Virginia Port Authority
Between now and 2020, investment needs in the nation’s marine ports and inland waterways sector will total $30 billion, while planned expenditures are about $14 billion, leaving a total investment gap of nearly $16 billion, according to a report released last week by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

The “Failure to Act” report concludes that transporting goods will become costlier, prices will rise and the U.S. will become less competitive in the global market if the gap is unfilled. Aging infrastructure for marine ports, inland waterways and airports threatens more than 1 million U.S. jobs.

Sea Technology magazine asked Jerry Bridges, director of the Virginia Port Authority and chairman of the American Association Port Authority (AAPA), for his thoughts on the state of port infrastructure in the U.S.

As a port authority director, what's your reaction to this ASCE report and its findings?
I already knew that federal commitment for investing in America’s freight handling infrastructure, particularly on the water side, is very low compared to what ports have committed to investing in their own facilities.

Yet, I was surprised at how large the impacts would be if the federal government were to only invest an additional $16 billion into waterborne infrastructure over the next seven to eight years: $270 billion more in U.S. exports overseas; nearly $700 billion more in Gross Domestic Product; and creation of 738,000 jobs. This equates to a $770 benefit for every household in the country, which you can also say is a $770 loss for every household if the investments aren’t made. I can’t think of any other investment with a return so substantial.

What are the most critical infrastructure needs at the Hampton Roads harbor? How much are these estimated to cost, and what are the barriers the port faces in funding these efforts?
The Port of Virginia has few of the infrastructure needs that many other ports face around the nation. Our navigation channels and our primary cargo berths are already dredged to 50 feet deep, which many in the industry consider to be the “gold standard.”

It was largely due to long-term planning, the visionary outlook of my executive director predecessors, and fact that both the Norfolk Naval Base—the largest in the world—and Norfolk Southern’s Pier 6, which is the nation’s largest exporter of coal, needed deep-draft channels for their ships.

Today, many ports throughout the country are seeking federal approval and appropriations to deepen their harbors to what the Port of Virginia has enjoyed since 2006. Other port authorities are seeking approval and appropriations for much more modest navigation improvements, such as deepening to 45 feet from 40 feet. This is simply to handle ships already in operation today.

Interestingly, the money required by the federal government for these improvements isn't all that much in the big scheme of things, and the ports typically pay the lion's share of the costs. For example, ports must pay 65 percent of the cost of deepening federal navigation channels for any increment over 45 feet, and then they have to pay for all of the costs of deepening their own berths.

One of the toughest barriers to funding in the past few years has been related to the nation’s challenging economic condition and the fact that freight infrastructure and ports are relatively invisible to the public and their elected leaders, particularly in states without ports.

Our work in the port industry is to demonstrate the benefits are real for everyone, not just those who live in port communities. Every state in the union depends on at least 15 domestic ports for its imports and exports, and our ports support 13.3 million jobs that create nearly $3.2 trillion economic benefits for the nation, along with more than $200 billion a year in federal, state and local taxes.

It’s important that investments in freight transportation infrastructure are recognized as an essential, effective utilization of limited federal resources, paying dividends through increased trade, jobs and tax revenues.

In regards to these infrastructure improvements, how much of these funds will go toward purchasing equipment or instrumentation? What role can the industry take in speeding along port infrastructure improvements?
There are very few ports in this country, and I can think of only two off the top of my head, that actually own, operate and maintain their own dredges.

Port security technologies are a different story. Ports and their marine terminal partners have invested billions of dollars since 9/11 in both required and increasingly crucial port security technologies, part of which has been paid for through DHS port security grants. I see these investments continuing, although at a somewhat reduced pace because of the huge cutbacks in the Port Security Grant program and due to the 25 percent cost-share that ports are expected to pay for any grants they may get.

The seaport industry’s role in speeding along port infrastructure investments is more along the lines of speaking through associations like AAPA that collect and amplify many individual voices into one strong, focused voice that is better able to garner attention and affect change.

Has the Virginia Port Authority discussed privatizing the dredging of deep-draft waterways by taking this work out of the hands of the federal government?
We don’t think that is likely to happen. The waterways, such as at our ports, are used by more than the commercial shipping industry. They are used by our armed forces for strategic defense and troop and matériel deployment, such as with the U.S. Navy. Our federal navigation channels are such an important national asset that it’s hard to imagine the federal government selling or leasing them to the private sector to improve and maintain.

Even the U.S. constitution includes language in it that cedes responsibility for improving and maintaining these navigation channels to the federal government.

What will be the No. 1 challenge in making improvements to U.S. port infrastructure?
The No. 1 challenge, going forward, will be continuing to make the case with the federal government to improve our harbors to accommodate larger, more efficient ships, while ensuring that cargo can move efficiently to and from ports on the land side.

The land-side freight connections, where necessary improvements range from bridges and tunnels to overpasses and intersections, have always been a challenge because they compete for funding with people-moving transportation improvements, such as high-speed rail and passenger-car freeway lanes. We have a saying in our industry that 'freight doesn’t vote,' and that is certainly the case with getting funding for land-side freight infrastructure improvements.

Caption: An infographic from the ASCE "Failure to Act" report.