"I started volunteering for the IEC to help develop new technical specifications and certification schemes together with many other international experts. For my contributions towards developing standards and certification for marine energy convertors I received the International Electrotechnical Commission 1906 Award and a nomination for the NENnovation Awards 2020."
Peter Scheijgrond | CEO Bluespring
Why certification?
Conformity assessment can mitigate technical and financial risks of technologies, which in turn attracts finance and encourages international trade. As marine energy is an emerging industry, international standards are yet to be consistently adopted and a conformity assessment system is currently under development.
MET-CERTIFIED project
The MET-CERTIFIED (Marine Energy Technologies – Certified) project was an Interreg 2 Seas funded project (2016-2019) which accelerated the development of standards and certification schemes for marine energy technologies under the umbrella of the International Electrotechnical Committee. The project enabled the application of IEC technical specifications 62600 for marine energy convertors to pilot projects within tank testing and open sea testing to provide feedback to the committees that develop and maintain the specifications. During the project experimental campaigns of three pilot projects were assessed against these technical specifications. These include design requirements, moorings, electrical power quality, acoustics, tidal power performance assessment, tidal resource assessment and scale tidal testing. In addition, two new specifications were developed as part of the project for mechanical loads and technology qualification.
Results
The application to real pilot projects and dissemination around this at conferences and workshops raised industry interest of both what technical specifications are available and the conformity assessment system being developed.
The recommendations from each pilot have been fed back to the appropriate team for each specification with the aim that it is considered for the next edition and there is frequent communication between the project and TC 114 and IEC RE working groups.
Specifically, the development of the IEC TS 62600-3 on mechanical load measurements was direct result of the MET-CERTIFIED, lead by Anton Schaap from DMEC and the IEC TS 62600-4 on Technology Qualifications lead by Winston D'Souza from Lloyd's Register.
In addition to de-risking the pilot projects, MET-CERTIFIED increased the participation in IEC. At the end of the project, EMEC joined the system as the first ever accepted Renewable Energy Test Laboratory (RETL) into the system. EMEC conducted its first third-party power performance assessment for US based Verdant Power.
Finally, MET-CERTIFIED resulted in a new project, ENCORE.
Role of Bluespring
Bluespring initiated and managed the MET-CERTIFIED project and guided the partnership through several unexpected events, such the withdrawal of a partner and bankrupcy of another partner.
Furthermore, Bluespring is convenor for the IECRE "Scope of Certification" and chairman for the Dutch mirror committee of the IEC TC 114. In this role, Bluespring was able to facilitate and align communications with IEC, exchange of documents and implementations of the recommendations.
Funding
MET-CERTIFIED received funding from the Interreg 2 Seas programme 2014-2020, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund under subsidy contract No 2S01-020. Also, the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands, the provinces of South and North Holland, and the Belgian Province of West Flanders are offering financial support.
Read more on the project website: www.met-certified.eu
