The high wave warning lights installed by Samarco at the Port of Ubu, in Anchieta (ES), bring more security to employees and contractors who need to access the site. There are three pieces of equipment at the entrance and in the middle of the breakwater that work 24 hours a day to alert people about the status of the waves. The red traffic light is an alert for no one to enter the breakwater and whoever is there should leave to avoid risks.

Equipment operations began at the end of July, after simulations of the control logic and testing. The system was developed by Samarco, which hired the company Hidromares to provide the data. Previously, monitoring was carried out using an instrumented buoy, but the information generated did not alert to risk situations, such as access to the breakwater in times of high waves.
“There was a significant security gain. The system provides information to those who work on site. It is an important alert to be considered in the risk analysis when entering the breakwater, a region of the port where we have already had the occurrence of stone projection”, highlighted Samarco's automation engineer, Luciano Rocha.

To trigger the light signals, depending on the height of the waves, a buoy with sensors was anchored in the Port of Ubu region. The data issued is monitored by the Samarco automation team. Luciano explains that in some situations the equipment may be activated manually. “On days when seafarers assess the need to consider other characteristics of the tide to confirm if there are risks, due to the height of the wave, we can trigger it manually”, said the engineer.