Equinor Dishes Out Offshore Wind Contracts

Norwegian energy major Equinor has awarded Nokia and NetNordic, and separately Origo Solutions with contracts to provide services on the company’s offshore wind farms.

Origo Solutions will be responsible for the complete delivery of the common Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system which will be used to operate wind farms from Equinor’s new UK regional control room.

This will be first implemented in Dogger Bank A, B, and C projects, which together comprise the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

”We are very pleased and excited to be awarded this contract. The award is a sign of confidence from Equinor, based on 20 years of good collaboration in implementing safe, smart and efficient technology solutions. This contract is a milestone in our strategic commitment to improve optimization of production and operations in the renewable industry,” said Bjørn-Tore Lenes, CEO of Origo Solutions.

In the UK, Equinor currently powers around 750,000 homes through the three operating wind farms: Sheringham Shoal and Dudgeon, and the world’s first floating wind farm, Hywind Scotland. Equinor is developing plans to extend both the Sheringham Shoal and Dudgeon wind farms, doubling its offshore wind capacity off the coast of Norfolk. The company will also operate Dogger Bank, from the Port of Tyne.

Nokia has collaborated with systems integrator, NetNordic, to enter into a frame agreement with Equinor to deliver a private 4G and 5G-ready solution for Equinor’s international operations.

The eight year frame agreement will include hardware, software, design, radio planning, implementation, and support.

Under the agreement, the private LTE network will be installed this summer at Dudgeon and Sheringham Shoal wind farms.

Jarl Øverby, NetNordic Group CEO: ”Working with Nokia we are able to deliver the secure, smart, offshore wireless digital fabric that Equinor can use to support its communication and maintenance activities and safety objectives. This includes the flexibility to employ a wide range of integrated applications, including Nokia DAC teams comms and Nokia Drone Networks, and the capability to deploy them to the edge. This is a secure and resilient solution that will easily scale and evolve to 5G to meet their future needs.”

Nokia DAC solution comprises the Nokia 4.9G LTE and 5G Radio Access Network technology and Nokia Industrial devices. The solution also includes a large range of access points both for indoor and outdoor coverage, and an edge solution with complete packet core and application framework for edge computing.