NEMA: Electro Industry October 2010 - 12

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Harnessing Marine
T
he wave of the future is marine hydrokinetic energy.
For the past two years, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Technical Committee (TC) 114 has worked diligently on developing international standards for marine hydrokinetic (MHK) energy. Currently, the committee has 13 participating nations, whose representatives vote on committee decisions, and seven observer nations, whose representatives are permitted to attend, but may not vote. The committee has concentrated on organizing its activities, setting work priorities, and initiating draft documents. Representatives from the IEC member countries have identified five focus areas, which are assigned to project teams (PTs)—terminology, wave device performance, tidal device performance, resource assessment, and design. The agreement on focus areas and the formation of project teams are noteworthy milestones. Committee progress, however, is constrained by each nation’s ability to contribute the resources that support their technical representatives.

Hydrokinetic energy
with International Standards
Neil Rondorf, Vice President, Maritime Operations, SAIC Maritime

The PT on terminology, for example, establishes a common language for the international community. This leads to use of common terms and definitions necessary to reach agreement in describing complex subjects. The two performance PTs—one each for wave and tidal devices—were considered high priority topics based on the progress of each industry and the maturity of several prominent devices. Further, standards are needed to establish credibility for this technology, credibility that is necessary to advance the technology to large-scale commercialization. When PTs target similar topics, they form a working group (WG). This is the case with the WG on resource assessment. Two separate PTs concentrate on standards for quantifying tidal and wave resources. Both are needed to accelerate progress in developing standards by which each resource can be modeled realistically and measured consistently. The core PTs on device performance and resource assessment are mandatory elements in establishing a baseline for investment and project development. These efforts present a number of challenges for the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG). One is the recruitment of talented people to contribute to the development of MHK standards. Candidate volunteers may be enlisted from industry, academia, government agencies, or other organizations.

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NEMA electroindustry • October 2010

NEMA: Electro Industry October 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NEMA: Electro Industry October 2010