This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
FEATURE SPONSOR


HIGH VOLTAGE CABLES


Poorly designed and manufactured cables would have a far greater detrimental impact than its onshore equivalent, because of the increased risk of corrosion, which would ultimately lead to the cables protection breaking down over time and eventually resulting in a cable failure. Furthermore badly installed accessories also contribute to cable failure offshore. Cables are also susceptible to damage from ship anchors and near shore fishing.


COMPANY EXPERIENCE


However, having worked on more than 10 offshore wind farm projects in the UK alone, many more offshore projects in the Oil and Gas industry, the company maintains that the main reasons for electrical cable failure are due to poor jointing practices during the cable termination of the export and array cables. CGI’s Directors Ian Abbott and Gary Watkins go on to provide further insight as to why they think this is the case.


Although very rarely, they have come across poorly designed joints, but state that mostly the cable joints and accessories that they are provided with on these projects are of a very high quality.


RISING DEMAND


Due to the increasing number of these projects that are constructed worldwide, the demand for cable jointers offshore is rising dramatically. There are increased pressures to complete these projects on time, despite there being days on end where the personnel can’t go offshore due to poor weather conditions and high seas.


CGI’s state that it is not at all uncommon for offshore teams to be stood down for up to a month at a time due to inclement weather conditions and that this increases the chance for installation error due to companies bringing on board more and more personnel in order to expedite the project. The problem that arises here is that as more crews are called upon, it becomes harder to manage the quality and risk to manage the numbers involved.


THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING The most important aspect of reducing these errors is better cable jointer training, CGI’s cable jointers have completed comprehensive training schemes including long term apprenticeships, where they didn’t just learn the basics of how to joint or terminate a cable, but were also taught about the make-up, inner workings and mechanics of the cables, cable accessories and cable systems.


Unfortunately because of the increased pressures of completing these projects on time there seems to be a growing number of cable jointers with the bare minimum of training and qualifications going offshore and although they can do a certain type of cable hang off / termination that may be commonly used offshore they don’t fully understand why they have to do something a particular way, or more importantly what to do if they face an obstacle or something goes wrong, which when working offshore is increasingly likely. Having spoken to other qualified cable jointers in the offshore industry they find they share the same concerns about under qualified personnel going offshore with very little experience. This comes under the old adage that “you can’t buy experience”. You cannot merely complete a course to gain all the necessary experience and correct working practices.


PHILOSOPHY


Hopefully loopholes like this will be clamped down on as part of the industry’s future cost cutting plans in order to help justify renewable energy sources, because ultimately any un- necessary costs that are incurred will be passed on to the energy consumer.


CGI’s philosophy is to find a solution, not a fault.


CGI’s Limited Click to view more info


www.windenergynetwork.co.uk


21


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116