CABLE INSTALLATION
FEATURE SPONSOR
THE BENEFITS OF SHARING MARINE
The proliferation of power cables in submarine applications has been fairly limited until recent years, at least in comparison with telecoms cables, which extend for hundreds of thousands of kilometres across the sea beds of the world. Indeed, most of the power cables that exist are fairly short in length, largely fulfilling national or short haul international requirements. With this in mind, power cable repair has until now been a specialist market centering on the hiring and mobilising of VOOs (vessels of opportunity) or framework agreements.
INDUSTRY GROWTH
With increasing awareness of climate change and the subsequent desire for more renewable and cleaner power sources, there has been a big push in recent times for the development of offshore wind capacity. This has led to a significant increase in power cable sea bed kilometres to service and connect windfarms to their respective national grids. In the European region, there has also been an increase in the number of international links. The upshot is an increased risk profile for power cables, and correspondingly more faults, whether from manufacturing or from third party aggression. Consequently, there has been a marked increase in the number of insurance claims.
REPAIR COSTS
Power cable repair costs are frequently in the multiple of millions. This is because such projects necessitate the diversion of a specialist installation vessel from its existing activities, and more often than not, sail it from a distant location. Furthermore, depending on the installation equipment already mobilised, it may be necessary to have a period of reconfiguration prior to commencing the power cable repair. Alternatively, the deployment of a VOO means having to locate and mobilise specialist equipment, such as chutes, tensioners and jointing equipment prior to sailing. Correspondingly, everything has to be demobbed after the operation, with these activities requiring the cable owner or insurer to cover the cost of the VOO while this takes place, which could cost anywhere between £65,000 and £150,000 per day. Assuming a seven-day mobilisation/configuration, and corresponding demobilisation, the pre- and post-operational activities can cost anywhere from £0.91 million to £2.1 million, even before sailing to the fault site and undertaking any surveys, inspection or repairs.
These costs do not even consider the cost of service interruption; this was calculated for a 300MW UK windfarm in November 2014 by Transmission
MAINTENANCE COSTS
We introduce Global Marine Systems our sponsor for this feature who are regular contributors. Stephen Holden their Maintenance Account Director explains the concept…
Investments LLP to be in the region of £3 million to £12 million per month depending on the number of export cables available for transmission back to the grid. In this instance, the higher figure is where only one export cable services the windfarm, while the lower figure represents two cables.
INTEGRATION OPPORTUNITY
Since the telecoms boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s resulted in the oversupply of vessels, the price that the industry is willing to pay for maintaining telecoms cables has in real terms either remained the same or decreased markedly. This has led to a significant reduction in replacement tonnage and the rapid aging of the world’s telecom installation and maintenance fleet. However, by integrating the maintenance of power cables with telecom cables, there is a great opportunity to share assets and the related cost base while allowing vessel owners to increase profitability and generate sufficient return on their investment to convert or build new dual-use tonnage.
4
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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