Vilicom and partners keep workers connected at Hornsea 2

Completed by Ørsted, the wind farm spans 472km² in the North Sea and comprises 165 8.4MW turbines.

Sean Keating, CEO of Vilicom, said Vilicom, Vodafone and Ørsted teams overcame the unique set of challenges involved in deploying a mobile network in the middle of the North Sea, and did so during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Vilicom and Vodafone teams worked for two years to build the communication infrastructure in tandem with the construction of the wind farm, which now supports a live Vodafone 4G mobile service across the entire wind farm. During the construction phase, Vilicom also delivered a temporary solution to provide connectivity to the employees working across a five-vessel fleet of floating offices.

Gearóid Collins, Chief Commercial Officer, Vilicom, said: “Hornsea 2 truly is a global delivery project and as part of the global ecosystem of partners on the project, we delivered elements in the UK, Denmark, Poland, Turkey and Singapore.

“However, the impact of the pandemic meant that we weren’t able to spend as much time together physically working on the delivery of the project. Vilicom pioneered and implemented virtual review sessions together with our project stakeholders and bring them to the location when they couldn’t physically be there.”

Collins continued: “Augmented reality and a different approach to audio visual services meant that we were able to reduce our required travel but at the same time give people the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the setting.

“Taking best in class design thinking and coupling that with our project and environmental constraints meant that we had to be innovative in the solutions we implemented to overcome all challenges.”

The network now provides Vodafone 4G mobile connectivity for the operational and maintenance staff employed on the site. Based in Dublin and Reading, Vilicom built and will power the critical communications infrastructure to enable workers to access the data and information systems needed to operate the wind farm and to stay connected to family and friends using their own devices.