Offshore Wind Energy

Offshore Wind Energy

The Offshore Wind Energy Team (OWE Team) operates in the Maritime Traffic Safety Department (MTSD, in Polish: IRM). The tasks of the OWE Team include, among others:

• Analyzing and giving opinions on navigational expertise, plans, applications and documents related to offshore wind energy (OWE) in terms of meeting formal requirements in accordance with applicable law;
• Analysis and issuing opinions on documents related to OWE investments, the impact of offshore wind farms (OWF) and associated installations on the safety and efficiency of vessel navigation;
• Development and supervision of the proper flow of nautical information related to the organization of shipping in the OWF area during the construction, operation and decommissioning phases;
• Development of ordinances regulating the rules of navigation during the construction, operation and decommissioning phases of the OWF areas and creation of appropriate procedures;
• Coordination, cooperation and agreement of opinions within the maritime office between experts involved in the OWF construction and operation process;
• Cooperation with investors, the VTS centres, maritime offices and services involved in the OWE development process;
• Cooperation with the VTS centres to develop instructions for supervision of vessel traffic in the OWF area;
• Exchange of information with Investors in order to develop plans for the operation of units involved in the construction and operation of the OWF;
• Participation in the work of the Polish Offshore Sector Deal group / stakeholder cooperation.

Information on submitting an application for the designation of a safety zone around artificial islands or a zone temporarily closed to navigation:

Due to the applications received by the Maritime Traffic Safety Department of the Maritime Office in Gdynia from entities performing work for wind farm investors, below there are information on the appropriate way to submit such an application.

Firstly, the following concepts should be distinguished in the Act of March 21, 1991 on maritime areas of the Republic of Poland and maritime administration, which concern offshore wind energy:

- art. 24 section 1 - safety zone around artificial islands, structures and devices or their assemblies, cables or pipelines, extending no further than 500 m from the outer edges,

- art. 48 section 1 - zone temporarily closed to navigation and fishing, water sports and diving,

- art. 3 section 1 - the establishment of the zones mentioned in this article (for the needs of state defense or security) is the responsibility of the Ministry of National Defense.

A safety zone around artificial islands... extending not more than 500m from the outer edges may be established around structures located within the exclusive economic zone. The director of the maritime office determines the conditions of movement within the safety zone, in particular he may introduce restrictions on navigation, fishing, water sports, diving or underwater work.

A zone temporarily closed to navigation…  may only be designated within the limits of internal maritime waters and the territorial sea. The director of the maritime office announces zones temporarily closed to navigation and fishing, water sports and diving. There are no specified sizes of such a zone.

When submitting an application for the designation of a safety zone around artificial islands or a zone temporarily closed to navigation, you should take into account the time needed to process the submitted applications.

Before the Ordinance of the Director of the Maritime Office regarding the designation of a safety zone or a temporarily closed zone comes into force (it will be announced in the voivodeship official journal), it must be submitted for opinion to the minister responsible for fisheries (Article 24(3)) or the Chief Inspector of Sea Fisheries (Article 48(1a), who have 14 days to issue an opinion, and then forwarded to the territorially competent voivodeship office for approval (also 14 days). Therefore, you should allow at least 6 weeks for processing your submitted application.

An application to establish a zone temporarily closed to navigation in the territorial sea or a safety zone around artificial islands located in the area within the scope of activity of the Director of the Maritime Office in Gdynia should be addressed to the Director of the Maritime Office in Gdynia.

The application should be submitted at least 6 weeks before the planned commencement date at the office of the Maritime Office in Gdynia (ul. Chrzanowskiego 10, 81-338 Gdynia) or by e-mail address: umgdy@umgdy.gov.pl.

The application should contain as a minimum:

• the basis for applying for the establishment of a zone temporarily closed to navigation and the scope of work carried out
• geographical coordinates of points limiting the zone in the WGS-84 system, along with display on the current navigation map
• zone capture time
• names of ships (and IMO/MMSI number) authorized to stay/work in the zone,
• method of communication with ships (e.g. VHF working channel, telephone)
• telephone number of the onshore contact person

Including the above-described data in the application, properly addressing and timely submission of the application will speed up processing of the document.

The Offshore Wind Energy Team:

Marta Kafarska – Offshore Wind Energy - Chief Specialist
Ph.:  +48 58 355 36 07
e-mail: marta.kafarska@umgdy.gov.pl

Michał Tomczyk – Offshore Wind Energy - Senior Specialist
Ph: +48 58 355 36 04
e-mail: michal.tomczyk@umgdy.gov.pl