A comparative safety assessment for direct current and direct current with hybrid supply power systems in a windfarm service operation vessel using system- theoretic process analysis

As windfarms are moving further offshore, their maintenance has to be supported by the new generation Service Operation Vessels (SOV) with Dynamic Positioning capabilities. For the SOV safe operations it is crucial that any hazardous scenario is properly controlled. Whilst international regulations require the implementation of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) for SOV power systems, FMEA has been criticised for not addressing properly failures in control systems. In this study, System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) is employed for identifying the hazardous scenarios in terms of Unsafe Control Actions (UCAs) in Direct Current (DC) and DC with batteries power systems. Then the identified UCAs are ranked based on their risk. The results demonstrate that the number of hazardous scenarios derived by the STPA increases in a power system with batteries in comparison to a conventional DC power system, thus depicting higher complexity of this system. However, the increase in overall risk is small and within acceptable limits, whilst the risk reduces for a number of UCAs leading to Diesel Generator overload sub-hazard.