First-Ever SOV Built in US Christened in Louisiana

May 13, 2024, by Adrijana Buljan

Ørsted and the US shipbuilder Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO) officially christened the first-ever US-built service operations vessel (SOV), ECO Edison, at the Port of New Orleans on 11 May.

The ECO Edison service operations vessel (SOV); Photo courtesy of Ørsted

The construction of the vessel started in March 2022 at ECO’s shipyard in Louisiana, where ECO marked a 50-per cent completion milestone in April last year.

The SOV was built by more than 600 workers – across nearly 1 million work hours – at ECO in-house shipyards in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, with components of the vessel sourced from 34 states, from Alabama to West Virginia, Ørsted emphasised in a press release on 11 May.

ECO Edison will be deployed for the operation and maintenance (O&M) of Ørsted and Eversource’s South Fork Wind, Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind offshore wind farms under a long-term charter agreement the developers signed with ECO in 2020.

On the three offshore wind farms, the SOV will serve as a year-round homebase for 60 of the first US offshore wind turbine technicians.

The vessel will be powered by two Cat 3512E engines from key supplier, Houston-based Caterpillar Marine, and includes features like a walk-to-work motion-compensated gangway for accessing the wind turbines and a so-called “daughter craft” onboard that can be deployed to efficiently maneuver crew across the wind farms.

ECO Edison was officially christened by Jennifer Scalise during a ceremony at the Port of New Orleans, where US House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and US Congressman Troy A. Carter, Sr. joined senior executives from Ørsted and Edison Chouest Offshore to celebrate the completion of the SOV.