It says a lot that Det Norske Veritas’ (DNV’s) merger with Germanischer Lloyd (GL) had to be approved by regulatory authorities on three continents.

Competition chiefs in China, the European Union, South Korea and the US are said to have green-lighted the union of the two companies, which together boast 16,000 employees across 300 sites in more than 100 countries. The level of scrutiny is probably warranted, though.

DNV GL Group, as the resulting company is called, is the world’s largest ship and offshore classification society as well as a leading provider of technical assurance and risk management to the oil and gas industry, and an expert in wind power transmission and distribution.

“The merging companies both represent leading market positions, complementary commercial positions and an acknowledged reputation for technology and high quality and integrity,” observed the group’s chief executive, Henrik Madsen, in a press statement.

DNV GL calls the merger an industry ‘game changer’, with Madsen saying the new company “will be unique positioned to offer a broader set of products and services, more in-depth expertise and a denser global network of sites.”

Turbine foundations

You would hardly expect the company to say otherwise. There are reasons for some in the wind energy industry to be on alert, though. In the past, DNV has been perceived as committing missteps in the industry, particularly with its certification of turbine foundations.

Back in 2010 the company hastened to put a stamp of approval on grout connections that later proved to be faulty.

To its credit, DNV scrambled a joint industry project to correct the issue and later issued new guidance, although some in the sector remained unconvinced of the conical grouted connection that was offered as a fix.

At the time, GL, which was just over half the size of DNV in terms of employees, offered an alternative foundation certification path that boasted a better track record.

With the merger of the two bodies, which together had practically cornered the offshore wind certification market, industry players might reasonably worry about a lack of validation alternatives for the sector.

Wind farm certification

Colin Morgan, regional advisory division manager for DNV GL, denies that is the case, pointing to Bureau Veritas, TÜV Rheinland and Lloyd's Register as some of the other options available for wind farm certification.

However, he concedes: “These companies do not have the track record that we do.”

Having said that, it is also the case that certification is not an absolute requirement in all situations. In the UK, for example, a DNV stamp of approval helps to impress backers but is not required by law.

And once a wind farm is commissioned, there could indeed be significant advantages to working with DNV GL as a single organisation.

Besides their certification activities, both companies previously had major consultancy arms dedicated to working alongside wind farm operators.

Maintenance expertise

Adding these together in theory gives clients access to a bigger, better pool of operations and maintenance expertise. “In the advisory part we are very much at the front end,” explains Morgan.

He points to work with the UK Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator programme and on individual consultancy projects with plant developers, advising on issues such as helicopters versus flotels for operations and maintenance, as evidence of DNV GL’s capabilities.

“The first thing that excites us about offshore operations and maintenance is that we have significant-sized groups in the legacy DNV and GL organisations,” Morgan says. “Some are focused on modelling, some on the sharp end, looking at actual outcomes.”

The ability to match models with real-life outcomes for a larger number of projects gives DNV GL’s consultancy teams a greater level of confidence in their predictions than was possible when the two businesses operated in isolation, he says.

In terms of integration, Morgan says DNV GL only needs to go through a minimal amount of consolidation. “There was a pretty good amount of complementariness there,” he says.

Enhanced capabilities

And clients are already beginning to benefit from the merged company’s enhanced capabilities, he believes. “The bit that’s dragging is the brand,” he comments. “We expected the clearances for competition to drag on a bit and they have gone through faster than we thought.”

The fact that so many competition authorities have waved through the merger without a challenge will surely be some consolation to those concerned about DNV GL’s dominance in the offshore wind industry.

Plus, if Morgan’s expectations of improved service come good then the industry will certainly stand to gain from the union.

But at IHS Emerging Energy Research, wind analyst Marc Muhlenbach is in wait-and-see mode. “When it comes to certification bodies, there are already not that many larger ones,” he says.

“I can only hope the standards are maintained and there is going to be an element of knowledge sharing.”