Rijkswaterstaat has built an Offshore Expertise Center (OEC) next to the Haringvliet sluice in Stellendam. Rijkswaterstaat started the OEC as a unique test location for the sensors of the Maritime Information Service Point (MIVSP), but the OEC is now also used for information and education and as a meeting location for stakeholders in the North Sea. In the coming years, the OEC will continue to grow into a fully-fledged public facility where parties work together, learn and innovate to keep the North Sea safe, liveable, accessible, economically profitable and in balance with nature for everyone.
A lifelike test setup for MIVSP's sensors
The OEC test facility is a 1-on-1 copy of the top layer of the offshore transformer stations of grid operator TenneT in the North Sea. The MIVSP sensors can be tested here in a realistic setup for their mutual coherence. The location of the OEC on the coast makes realistic, practice-oriented test scenarios for the operation of sensors in the North Sea possible. And that is useful, because testing at sea is a lot more expensive and complicated than on land.
The OEC is more than a testing center
The OEC is also used for information and education. In that context, an 'experience path' has been created at the OEC. Walking along the path, you will see on picture boards how the Netherlands is developing offshore wind farms in a nature-friendly manner and what role information provision plays in this. In the meantime, you will pass specially planted dune plants and wild flowers and insect hotels and beehives. The whole brings to life the importance of the energy transition, sustainability and cooperation in the North Sea in an appealing way.
Image: Merijn Koelink
Learning and innovating together
The OEC is the place where parties conduct research into the North Sea and collaborate on applications for information provision at sea. While it is already the home base for initiatives such as the North Sea Digitalization Implementation Program, the Sea View Exploration and the North Sea Connectivity Field Lab, the expertise center will be used increasingly widely in the near future.
Projects are being launched together with knowledge and research institutions and companies that will allow users to better coordinate their activities in the North Sea. And in which new applications and innovations are made possible with data collected at sea. For example, the University of Amsterdam is developing a model with the help of MIVSP's bird radars to predict bird migration around offshore wind farms.