12 December 2024 – This year marks 20 years of Vissim driving innovation in offshore wind. From pioneering marine coordination to launching cutting-edge software solutions, we’ve supported 45 wind farms and 25 GW of clean energy projects worldwide. Together with our exceptional team and global clients, we’re shaping the future of sustainable energy.
From our early beginnings to today, we’ve been driving progress in marine management and surveillance in offshore wind. Over the past two decades, Vissim has earned its reputation as a trusted industry leader in Marine Coordination and Permit solutions, spanning construction through operations and maintenance.
At the heart of our success is our exceptional team. Since our founding, we have fostered a culture that promotes creativity, collaboration, and a commitment to excellence. Over the years, we’ve grown from a small group into a global workforce of nearly 150 professionals, each playing a pivotal role in our achievements.
Key Achievements
- 45 offshore wind farms have used our solutions
- 25 GW of combine project power worldwide supported by Vissim
- 40,000 users of our offshore wind software platform
Key Milestones Along Our Journey
2004 – We delivered a surveillance system to the world’s first large-scale offshore wind farm, Horns Rev1, located in the North Sea.
2008 – Introduction of the Personnel Traffic Tracking Unit (PTU), which automated personnel transfer logging and became an industry standard, enhancing safety and communication efficiency.
2011 – We provided our full Marine Coordination Solution to London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind farm at the time. We also launched our cloud-based tool, Offshore Profile (OSP), aimed at revolutionising operations by leveraging digitalisation technologies and significantly speeding up tedious manual tasks and paper-based workflows.
2018 – We launched Offshore Energy Manager (OSEM), a much improved and GDPR-compliant version of OSP, built from years of experience and learnings, as well as valuable feedback from clients.
2020 – We won Akita & St Brieuc projects, in Japan and France. OSEM was made available in Japanese
2022 – OSEM was further enhanced with an integrated Permits module and Daily Progress Reports (DPR) module, to be able to cover more offshore wind farm construction activities, particularly for large far-offshore projects such as Dogger Bank and Sofia in North Sea.
2023 – Launch of the Logistics Tracking Unit (LTU), a successor of our Personnel Tracking Unit (PTU), our solution for complex employee tracking on far-shore wind farms using Service Operation Vessels (SOVs).
Adapting to Rapid Industry Changes
Our success is rooted in close collaboration with clients, driving innovation and delivering solutions that adapt to the dynamic, growing and ever-evolving demands of the offshore wind sector.
Far-Offshore Projects
Wind farms are being developed as far out as 300 km from the shore, in order to capitalise on stronger and more consistent winds.
This makes transportation and logistics increasingly complex. Traditional vessel and personnel transfer methods are no longer sufficient, leading to the widespread adoption of Service Operation Vessels (SOVs). These vessels serve as self-contained offshore hubs, equipped with control rooms, gangways, daughter craft, onboard warehouses, and accommodation facilities, enabling teams to remain offshore for extended periods.
Managing remote operations such as these effectively requires robust tools to help track personnel, equipment, and progress in real-time. Vissim’s solutions, such as the Logistics Tracking Unit (LTU) and OSEM platform, are specifically designed to address these challenges, ensuring operational safety, efficiency, and compliance even in the most demanding offshore environments.
Centralised Control Rooms for Efficiency
The increasing number and scale of offshore wind farms has driven a trend towards centralised control room management. Instead of managing each project individually, operators are now preferring to operate of multiple wind farms in single, strategically located control centres.
A benefit of this centralisation is better allocation of resources, such as vessels, personnel, and spare parts, across projects, reducing downtime and operational costs.
This concept of centralisation is not new and draws heavily on lessons learned from other industries, such as maritime operations and offshore energy. At Vissim, we’ve applied our extensive experience in coastal monitoring and major security projects to the offshore wind sector. Our work on projects like the continuous monitoring of Norway’s continental coast and the security operations off the coast of Benin has provided invaluable experience and knowledge which have shaped our ability to deliver integrated, scalable solutions that bring a higher level of operational efficiency and situational awareness to offshore wind farm management.
By leveraging this cross-industry expertise, we’ve developed systems that integrate data from multiple wind farms into a unified interface. These platforms provide operators with real-time visibility, enabling them to make real-time informed decisions, optimise resource usage, and respond quickly to changing conditions across multiple projects.
Communication systems
In the early years, one of our biggest challenges was the lack of reliable offshore communication infrastructure. The AIS network was the primary option available at that time, providing limited capabilities for data exchange. However, Vissim has evolved significantly since then, deploying advanced communication systems to facilitate the marine coordination of complex projects such as Sofia, Dogger Bank, Seagreen and more.
Our comprehensive communication solutions include TETRA and DMR voice communications, VHF, Radio over Internet Protocol (RoIP), Radar integrations, and CCTV systems. These technologies have effectively filled the gaps in offshore project visibility, significantly enhancing our overall solutions and supporting safer, more efficient operations.
As we look to the future, we remain committed to advancing our communication systems in new deployments for 2025, including projects like Thor, Nordsee Cluster, East Anglia 3, Oranje Wind Power II, and Empire Wind. By integrating such technologies, we will continue to ensure seamless connectivity between Service Operation Vessels (SOVs), onshore control rooms, and offshore assets, enabling centralised management and maintaining robust communication.
Scalability and Long-Term Vision
As offshore wind farms continue to grow in size, distance from shore and complexity, Vissim’s solutions are continuously evolving to meet both current and future demands. Our platforms are designed to scale with the industry, integrating new modules and capabilities to help address challenges such as formalised handover processes between construction and operations phases, and enhanced security measures for critical infrastructure.
By staying ahead of industry trends and applying lessons learned from other sectors, we strive to ensure that our clients can overcome the logistical, operational, and technological hurdles of far-offshore projects, enabling the delivery of clean energy more efficiently and cost-effectively.
Our agility and results-driven approach have enabled us to successfully deliver numerous projects across the world.
By working closely with our clients, we explore innovative solutions, solve complex challenges, and respond quickly to emerging needs. This unwavering dedication to client satisfaction has been, and will continue to be, a cornerstone of our service.
Upcoming Projects and Goals
This year, we are on track to expand our portfolio by at least 8 new wind farm projects. Looking ahead, we anticipate an even larger number of new projects each year, fuelled by the continued expansion to markets outside Europe.
As global demand for sustainable energy solutions rises, we are strategically positioning ourselves to seize these opportunities, further strengthening our presence and influence in the global offshore wind industry.
The Next Decade
Looking into the future we’re excited to be able to continue building upon the strong foundation we’ve established over the past two decades. Our vision for the next 10 years is focused on innovation, sustainability, and expanding our global impact.
We aim to continue enhancing our products by integrating key workflows currently managed in Excel and various custom software solutions into a cohesive, holistic platform. This integration will optimise workflows, reduce the number of interfaces needed, and provide better management and oversight of operations. Our goal is to streamline complex projects and portfolios for companies globally, enabling more efficient and effective operations.
We also have a goal of expanding into wind new markets in regions such as the Taiwan, South Korea, and increasing our existing presence in United States and Japan.
Our Commitment to Environmental Sustainability
As the leading provider of marine coordination and permit solutions for offshore wind farms, Vissim has made significant contributions to the green transition. The renewables sector has become a strategic pillar of our business, reflecting our deep commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility.
About Vissim
Vissim is a software developer and turnkey sensor and infrastructure provider for advanced marine optimisation systems. Vissim helps clients globally manage offshore wind, energy, port, and coastal operations to achieve safer, more cost-efficient, and sustainable outcomes.
Through digitalising the coastal and ocean space, Vissim provides maritime awareness through real time data, along with data analysis. In total, this platform supports decisions to optimise offshore logistics, marine and harbor traffic, safeguard marine assets and life, and enhance maritime security.
Vissim´s technologies for maritime operations and situational awareness are used globally by clients in offshore wind, oil and gas industries, and port authorities.
Vissim is headquartered in Horten, Norway, and has offices in the UK and Slovakia, in addition to a global partner network.
