In 2016, VEO secured a large order from the German and Finnish shipyard companies MEYER WERFT and MEYER TURKU. Being the largest deal of its kind in all of VEO’s history, the order involves the electrification of four cruise liners with an option for six more. By spring 2021, VEO has delivered its part on four cruise liners and five option ships are already under construction. The project is estimated to be delivered in total by the end of 2023.

Project scope

The scope of the project is clearly product focused with VEO Oy’s own VEDA Marine low voltage switchboards at the core, which are customised according to customer specifications. The space-saving VEDA Marine is based on Form2 partitioning which improves the applicability and space effectiveness of the switchgear in marine applications where space is limited. In addition, approximately 250 metres of low voltage switchboards will be delivered per cruise liner, which makes it a large-scale, long-term project: the equipment is being delivered in multiple batches followed by the actual installation. In addition to the equipment included in the deal, there are a number of free-standing cabinets, frequency converters and transformers to be delivered for each ship as well as engineering, documentation, project management and installation work at the yard.

“VEO is a partner with experience and expertise. We are happy to involve them in our shipbuilding projects,”
says Stephan Schmees, Director of Project Management at MEYER WERFT.

Example of a typical scope of supply

• 146 panels of VEDA low-voltage switchboards
• 120 panels of free-standing cabinets
• 150+ pcs of control boxes
• 300+ pcs of frequency converters
• 9 pcs of distribution transformers

Sailing in the Mediterranean or the Caribbean

The delivery to MEYER WERFT has taken VEO’s marine business to a whole new level. Half of the ships will be built at MEYER WERFT’s shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, while the other half will be built at the company’s Turku shipyard in Finland. When completed, these ships will sail either in the Mediterranean or the Caribbean Sea.

Project status

Ship 1: S.696 AIDA nova – Handed over

Ship 2: NB1394 Costa Smeralda – Handed over

Ship 3: S.710 IONA – Handed over

Ship 4: NB1396 Mardi Gras – Handed over

Ship 5: (option) S.709 AIDA cosma – Delivery of VEO’s part

Ship 6: (option) NB1395 Costa Toscana – Delivery of VEO’s part

Ship 7: (option) S.716 Arvia – In progress

Ship 8: (option) NB1397 Carnival Celebration – In progress

Ship 9: (option) S.717 Carnival – In progress

Smooth and timely deliveries

VEO has successfully delivered its part of the project according to schedule and everything has run smoothly. Before this massive project, MEYER WERFT was a new VEO customer, which meant that small adjustments had to be made in accordance with customer specific needs. Now, with several successfully completed deliveries, VEO has become one of MEYER WERFT’s trusted partners, with a good concept for project management in large-scale cruise liner projects.

Opportunity for extensive FATs, also online

In such projects, VEO and the customer set up different milestones concerning design, approval, procurement, manufacturing, testing, packing & delivery as well as for Factory Acceptance Tests (FAT). When it comes to FATs, VEO has high-quality testing facilities at its factory in Vaasa where even extensive FATs can be run safely. By running FATs for all our electrification and automation interfaces, we can ensure that errors are eliminated before delivery, which saves valuable time when commissioning onsite. Our FATs also help to maintain our prized safety-at-work policy when delivering electrification and automation solutions to our customers.

We have also taken remote FATs into use, which give our customers the possibility to join the tests more efficiently and safely online, through live video.

Cooperation throughout the project

VEO continues to work closely with the customer, even after the successful delivery of VEO’s products, by making requested design modifications and working with the modified switchboard installations at the yard. The duration of one cruiser line project is more than 2 years from the kick-off meeting to the final hand over.

By spring 2021, VEO has delivered its part on four cruise liners and five option ships are already under construction.