Application of redundancy in ship power plants of offshore vessels

Power and propulsion systems of offshore units must be of a very high level of reliability. The loss of ability to perform functions of their components causes generally to very high economic losses, which may be increased by unused the weather window resulting to postponing the planned offshore operations. To ensure carrying out so expensive offshore operations in the most reliable way, various types of redundancies are built-in ship power plants. This paper deals with issues related to application of redundancy in ship power plants of offshore vessels. Especially, evolution of redundancy application in ship power plants, and design solution of redundancy for offshore vessels are presented. Moreover, the specifics of these offshore operations so important from the point of view of minimizing financial losses due to any interruptions caused by failures of power and propulsion systems are discussed in detailed way.