The German Offshore Wind Energy Association (BWO) has published a whitepaper on how offshore wind farms should meet the obligations of Germany’s KRITIS umbrella act (KRITIS-Dachgesetz), the law that sets physical security requirements for operators of critical infrastructure. The association argues that the industry’s existing security and management systems already cover most of what the law demands, and that the rules should be adapted to conditions at sea rather than copied from onshore.
The paper, titled “From contribution to benchmark: sector-specific requirements in the maritime special situation”, reviews around 30 operator obligations. BWO concludes that in most cases existing requirements and compliance models can be transferred to offshore operations, often with adjusted response times or access conditions. Only in a few cases does the sea require a different approach.
By the “maritime special situation” BWO means that offshore wind farms lie far out at sea, can be reached by ship or helicopter only in suitable weather, and sit in an area where state responsibility is split between several authorities. The association says these conditions must be reflected when the law is implemented, so that protection is effective and duplicate structures are avoided.
Section 14 of the act explicitly allows operators and their associations to propose their own sector-specific standards. The whitepaper is BWO’s contribution to that process.
“Our operators already have a high level of protection. Whoever designs the requirements of the KRITIS umbrella act should take existing structures into account instead of creating duplicate ones, which in the worst case would result in a lower level of protection. Conditions at sea are different from those on land,” said Stefan Thimm, Managing Director of BWO.
The rules will apply to German offshore wind farms in both the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. In the Baltic, damage to subsea cables and pipelines in recent years has made the protection of offshore energy infrastructure a standing item on the regional security agenda.
