Standards Development
In addition to its services for developers of devices, the European Marine Energy Centre is facilitating the development of standards, on behalf of the marine renewable energy industry. This is in line with EMEC’s Mission to encourage and stimulate the development of the industry.
EMEC’s first involvement within this field began back in 2004 when the first draft standard assessment for testing the Performance of Wave Energy Converter Systems in the Open Sea was launched. This established how to characterise an area of the sea in terms of its wave energy levels and use this along with electrical power measurement to assess device performance. This meant that EMEC could test devices using a uniform methodology to ensure consistency and stated accuracy in the measurement and analysis of the performance of wave energy conversion systems.
The Standards Project is being led on EMEC's behalf by John Griffiths. John is a non-Executive Director of EMEC and acts as our Technical Director for which he has responsibility within the Board for the company's management systems (Health & Safety; Environmental Management and QA). The QA aspect includes our programme for accreditation under ISO 17025 - the Standard for Measurement Laboratories for which we are registered with UKAS as our Accreditation Body and who effectively independently survey and audit all our key activities. John was the co-ordinating author of the first Draft Standard on "Performance Measurement of Wave Energy Converters in the Open Sea" and has been closely involved in the design and development of the EMEC facilities since inception.
The recent process of standards drafting for the marine renewable energy industry has being independently assessed by the Environment Council. To date, The Environment Council has observed 3 of the 4 main workshops, distributed questionnaires to the delegates, and contacted individuals from the marine energy industry to acquire feedback on stake-holder engagement. Click here for The Environment Council’s latest report.
One of the key steps in this process has been to engage the industry and make sure that wide consultation takes place on the documents. This has included colleagues throughout Europe through the International Energy Agency group on Ocean Energy Systems (IEA-OES).
For an introduction to some of the benefits of standardisation and the process of producing standards please visit the website of BSI British Standards.
For more information please download our EMEC 'Setting the Standard' Leaflet