DSV : 1,000 tonnes delivery in blustery rainy weather

DSV was in charge of delivering the engines, generators, etc., for a new power station in the Faroe Islands. Twice, the operation had to be suspended due to sudden stormy weather.

Picture above: 12 axles, 48 wheels. As this type of equipment is not found in the Faroe Islands, DSV had to convey the special vehicle by ferry from Hirtshals in North Denmark.

The Sund 3 power station in the Faroe Islands, aimed to supplement the old stations Sund 1 and Sund 2, got all its internal equipment from Rotterdam and Esbjerg. A special-purpose ship was filled with engines, generators, boilers and smokestack sections, and the preparations fully occupied Claus Skiffard, General Manager, DSV Projects, for no less than three months. Even so, he had no time to rest on his laurels when the actual delivery process finally began:

'You're on the job round the clock for ten days,' Claus Skiffard explains.

Power-station specialist Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor A/S (BWSC) had won the contract for delivering the highly efficient 37 MW power station to enlarge the Faroe Islands' existing power stations. Elfelagid SEV, the Faroe Islands' own power company, had commissioned the project.

Picture: Each of the diesel engines that will generate 37 MW in the new enlargement of Sund 1 and Sund 2 weigh 190 tonnes. Together with the rest of the equipment, DSV filled up the chartered ship solely with equipment for the power station.

Searching for a special-purpose ship

DSV chartered a ship in Rotterdam. But it had to be a ship whose draught was not too deep and was also equipped with its own crane, as the quay in the Faroe Islands could not bear the weight of both a crane and the enormous engines, each weighing 190 tonnes.

'It's also quite shallow there, so we had to find a special type of ship,' says Claus Skiffard, who managed the project from start to finish. He even attended the loading in Rotterdam and the subsequent loading of additional equipment in Esbjerg before the ship continued on its way to the Faroe Islands loaded only with DSV cargo.

Enormous quantities of equipment

By then, DSV had already sent six truck trailers of equipment and a 12-axled hydraulic, self-propelled vehicle (joystick-operated) by cargo ferry from Hirtshals to Thorshavn.

'It takes enormous quantities of equipment, both to convey the cargo the last two or three hundred metres from the quay up to the construction site and for the actual installation of engines, etc.,' explains Claus Skiffard whose challenging tasks began when the first engine had to be unloaded.

Big challenges

'We'd moored the ship along the largest quay next to the power station. Previous inspections had revealed that we could unload all cargo weighing less than 40 tonnes here, but that the quay couldn't bear the weight of the heavy engines and generators. This meant that we had to haul the ship over to the much smaller quay next to it. From here, we used the crane to lift the cargo nine metres in over the quayside to where the soil was solid enough to bear the heavy cargo,'

Claus explains, and continues:

'The weather was very fickle. Predicting the weather in the Faroe Islands just a half day in advance is impossible, so we had to suspend the operation twice until the weather calmed down. Everything fell into place within the allotted time frame though, and today the former quarry at Kaldbaksfjørður is renamed Sund 3. The exterior walls are clad with local stones and the roofs with traditional Faroe sod to minimise maintenance and maximise durability and sound insulation.'

A job well done

Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC) delivered the first turnkey power station to the Faroe Islands more than thirty years ago. Sund 3 is the third power station to be delivered by BWSC to Elfelagid SEV.

'Our groundwork for nominating a carrier for transporting the engines and generators from Rotterdam to Sund was lengthy and thorough, but it was all worth it. BWSC got a well-prepared, well-implemented, and highly flexible transport solution in a job well done,' says Bo Jensen, Logistics Project Manager, BWSC.

Sund 3 is expected to be brought onto the power grid early next year.