Yards Moving Forward - GL Group

NEWS
News from the Industrial Services
NEW STANDARD DEVELOPED
First Customer: AIDA Cruises
The new industry standard “GLC Maritime
Social Responsibility” has confirmed that
the AIDA shipping company meets the
highest international standards with
regard to quality, safety, environmental
protection and social responsibility. Dr.
Hermann J. Klein, Executive Board
Member of Germanischer Lloyd, presented
the certificates to Michael Thamm,
President of AIDA Cruises. “With the certification
of our corporate standards, we are
setting a clear example for our staff, business
partners and the German cruising
market. At the same time, we are creating
the best conditions for the sustained development
of AIDA Cruises – a development
which is definitely oriented towards
growth,” Michael Thamm emphasized at
the presentation ceremony. Besides the
implementation of three ISO standards,
AIDA Cruises had commissioned Germanischer Lloyd to develop a new standard for social security. This led to “GLC Maritime
Social Responsibility”, with which Germanischer Lloyd Certification (GLC) examines how the organizational structure of a
company considers the protection needs of its personnel with regard to health, salaries, working hours and the right to
establish labour bodies, for example. During a one-week audit, compliance with the requirements of the new standard was
scrutinized at the head office in Rostock and on the ships of the AIDA fleet.
For further information: Claus Peter Meenke, Germanischer Lloyd Certification, Head of the Sales Department, Phone +49 40 36149- 4836, claus-peter.meenke@gl-group.com
EXTENDING THE NETWORK
Need for Political Rulings
The Hamburg Übersee-Club was well attended:
35 representatives of banks, insurance
companies, project developers, manufacturers,
energy utilities, universities and engineering consultancies
met at the end of August to discuss the paper by Dr. Urban
Keussen on the topic: “In What Direction is the Wind
Blowing?”. In his eloquent speech, Dr. Keussen (Managing
Director Technology at E.ON Netz GmbH, Bayreuth), spotlighted
the national and European aspects of wind energy
integration. “The wind sector is booming, especially in
Northern Germany. Schleswig-Holstein has become a veritable
wind energy export region, and this evokes supranational
rulings for electricity transit.” In connection with
the provisions of the Electricity Feed Law and the related
remunerations, a number of technical challenges have
arisen for grid operators: “The increasing feed-in of wind
energy is no longer an exclusively national topic,” Keussen
explained. “Complaints from neighbouring states about
current flows in their grids from wind energy sources and
constraints on the interconnection transport capacities at
the German borders make this abundantly clear.”
48 nonstop 3/2006
Bernhard Ständer, Managing Director GLC; Denver Ehrlich, Operating Line Compliance AIDA
Cruises; Dr. Hermann J. Klein, Executive Board Member GL; Michael Thamm, President AIDA
Cruises; Michael Ungerer, Senior Vice President Operations (from left to right)
Just what this pan-European solution must
look like was the subject of lively discussion
in the WindEnergieZirkel Hanse. “For this reason,
the European transmission system operators have
initiated a study to investigate these national aspects,” said
Keussen. There was agreement amongst the participants
about the necessity for expanding the electricity grid in
Germany. But whether this should be done with overhead
lines or cabling can in the end only be determined by the
political decision-makers.
WindEnergieZirkel Hanse (WEZ Hanse) views itself as a
mouthpiece for the wind power industry in the greater
Hamburg area. Since its establishment last year, a number
of interesting speeches have been given. For example, Jörg
Kuhbier, Senator (ret.), spoke on the development and erection
of an offshore test field in the exclusive economic zone
(EEZ); Udo Paschedag, Head of Department at the Federal
Ministry for the Environment (BMU), examined the technological
and innovative aspects of the wind industry; and
the proprietor of the consultancy Garrad Hassan spoke on
insurance and commercial aspects in the operation of wind
turbines at home and abroad.