Growing investment in offshore energy is creating new opportunities for Kongsberg Maritime. Its technologies help power reliable, safer, and more efficient transportation and installation of large floating structures – from floating wind turbines to FPSOs, drilling rigs and other offshore assets.
The offshore industry is seeing increasing demand for large floating structures, driven by developments in renewable energy, offshore oil and gas, and other marine infrastructure projects.
As investment grows, Kongsberg Maritime is expanding its offering to support the safe transportation and installation of increasingly large and complex floating assets. In floating offshore wind, future developments may include 50 or more turbines in a single field, highlighting the scale of future towing and positioning operations. Similar challenges exist across offshore oil and gas and other floating infrastructure projects, where large, high-value structures must be transported, positioned and installed safely and efficiently.
Towing large floating assets from yards or ports to offshore locations is a complex challenge. Whether moving floating wind turbines, FPSOs, semi-submersible drilling rigs or other structures, operators need safe, efficient and repeatable ways to tow and position these assets over long distances and in varying environmental conditions.
With decades of experience in supplying the world’s offshore companies with advanced dynamic positioning (DP) systems, Kongsberg Maritime has developed a new technology application to enhance its popular K-Pos DP system. This enables unpowered floating structures to become DP-enabled during complex towing and positioning operations.
The new Tow Assist system was successfully trialled in the North Sea in 2024 and is set to become commercially available in 2025, following piloting in the oil and gas sector. This innovative approach could transform complex towing and positioning operations across multiple offshore sectors.
Kongsberg Maritime has the technology to empower the offshore energy industry.
When offshore structures are large, unpowered floating objects, accurate positioning and movement control during towing, station keeping and installation is crucial.
“In the case of floating offshore wind, getting turbines out into the field, in much higher volumes than we’ve seen so far, is going to pose a major challenge”, says Kristian Ivar Øien, DP Product Advisor at Kongsberg Maritime. “Being able to manage and understand their positioning at all times is crucial. Adding to this the fact that you must do this kind of operation all year round, repeatedly, and we’re looking at a whole new way of working.”
“Many countries, including Norway, the UK, China and France, are proposing major investment in floating offshore wind, so we will see major upscaling of manufacturing for the turbines and underwater part of the structures, and new demands for technologies simplifying and improving transportation and installation operations.”
The complete turbines, including blades, generators, the tower and the underwater floating part, will be transported in one piece, often several hundred miles out to sea.
We have listened to several wind farm operators, and the towing of the complete turbines comes up regularly as a key challenge, especially as volumes will increase to levels we’ve not seen before.
Kristian Ivar Øien, DP Product Advisor at Kongsberg Maritime
As a leader in the supply of DP systems, Kongsberg Maritime’s K-Pos DP control system was the natural choice for deployment in this new market. DP automatically engages thrusters to hold a vessel’s position, or heading, during critical operations. The principle for the new Tow Assist system is to provide a floating structure with its own DP capability, in combination with towing vessels in one coordinated operation.
Kristian explains: “To do this, we install temporary positioning equipment on the floater, which links wirelessly to the connected towing vessels, which are equipped with DP systems.”
“We’re essentially providing a decentralised DP operation to a floating object. We can measure the position of the floater and the position of the connected vessels, and then, using a precise model of the floater, we calculate optimal setpoints and generate advice via the tool to help accurately position the unit, either for station keeping or moving along a trajectory in a controlled manner.”
Real-time data on position and heading, along with thruster and winch status, is transferred wirelessly to the Tow Assist master computer. Then, the connected vessels act as thrusters for the floating structure – they become one, and move as one, all controlled by proven DP technology.
Kristian Ivar Øien, DP Product Advisor at Kongsberg Maritime
Initially engineered to support the development of the floating offshore wind market, Tow Assist is equally applicable to other offshore operations involving floating structures. The same technology can support towing, positioning and mooring hook-up activities for FPSOs, drilling rigs, floating production facilities, offshore substations and other large marine assets where precision, safety and operational efficiency are critical.
To date, such manoeuvres have been carried out using radio and audio instructions from the Tow Master to the crews. The Tow Assist system offers real-time, shared situational awareness for all vessels and the floating object connected in the tow, with crews on each vessel able to monitor each other’s position.
Kristian continues: “This approach is particularly useful when getting the floating structure into the exact position for attaching anchors or through intricate near-shore environments. However, Tow Assist should be deployed for the entire journey from shore to field, as it supports the optimal performance of the vessels, also during transit.”
“Depending on where the floaters are being transported, there will be different levels of seaborne traffic and other obstacles to navigate, so all parts of the towing journey can be enhanced with Tow Assist. Vessel capability and crew competency for complex towing also vary globally, so this will provide a more standard approach.”
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Towing on test
In summer 2024, Kongsberg Maritime demonstrated the Tow Assist system’s capabilities during a successful trial at the Hywind Scotland offshore wind farm off the coast of Aberdeen. Hywind Scotland started operating in 2017 and is a pilot project with five floating turbines, together producing 30 MW of power.
An operation was undertaken to tow each of the turbines to the port of Sløvåg in Norway for heavy maintenance, and back again. “For the move of the fifth turbine, we installed the sensor equipment and upgraded the K-Pos DP system on two of the three vessels,” says Kristian.
“For the trial, we didn’t need all three vessels to have Tow Assist installed, but for commercialised operation, equipping all vessels will fully optimise the operation.” The vessels were the Skandi Vega [lead tow vessel with K-Pos, Tow Assist master unit and the Tow Master aboard], the Normand Ferking [equipped with K-Pos and Tow Assist] and the Normand Sigma [without K-Pos and controlled manually].
We had positioning sensors installed on the floater that measured angle, heading and position, giving real-time positioning signals. Once the location of the field was reached, we enabled the system and the Tow Master was able to control the heading of the Skandi Vega and the Normand Ferking through the Tow Assist system, which automatically controlled the vessels’ propulsion to assist with the positioning of the unit. From a technical level, it worked flawlessly.
While the Hywind Scotland trial demonstrated the value of Tow Assist in a floating offshore wind operation, the technology has applicability across a much broader range of offshore projects. As floating structures continue to grow in size, complexity and number, Tow Assist provides a scalable and standardised approach to towing, positioning and installation, helping operators improve safety, situational awareness and operational efficiency throughout the execution.
