Page 25: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2023)

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BSEE GEARS UP FOR

OFFSHORE WIND OVERSIGHT “I’ve challenged my team to say, ‘Hey, we need to really get our arms wrapped around these safety standards.’ We don’t need one company like Equinor or Ørsted or

Dominion working on their own. We need to have consensus-based safety standards that will then be incorporated by reference back into our new 285 Reg that we anticipate we’ll be putting out a notice of proposed rulemaking by the end of the year.”

Kevin Sligh Sr., Director, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) ing an airplane while we’re fying, we’re close to it, and we

How do you see the U.S. ofshore energy produc- are exceeding our expectations on these frst few projects.

tion changing today, and what are some of the key safety and environmental concerns from the

What challenge does BSEE’s responsibilities on

BSEE’S perspective?

ofshore wind bring to the organization, and how

The frst few [Offshore Wind] projects’ Construction is regulating ofshore wind energy diferent com-

Operation Plan (COP) were approved by BOEM years pared to your usual work in the ofshore oil and ago, and we’re starting to look at those engineering reports. gas sector?

The COP is the envelope of what could be built from a

While we are the lead for safety and environmental en- turbine and electrical substation facility off the coast. And now we’re getting into what they really want to put on forcement and compliance, BOEM is responsible for the the OCS, as in a few years technology changes, from the leasing and the NEPA [National Environmental Policy monopiles to the supporting beam to the blade sizes. Now Act] work that goes on.

So in conjunction, we are both leads; we just have our we’re taking a harder look to make sure that the plans are respective lanes. Now that the split has occurred, we are sound and structurally safe before we give a no objection.

We are committed to this administration’s 30 by ‘30, coordinating reviews. Those FDR [Facility Design Re- which is 30GW (of offshore wind power) by 2030, and port] and FIR [Fabrication and Installation Report] re- then 15GW by 2035 for foating offshore wind. We are views are being coordinated between BSEE and BOEM.

We’ve brought on the Army Corps of Engineers and their learning as fast, and while I don’t want to say we’re build-

MARCH/APRIL 2023 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 25