To reduce power-cable failures offshore, DNV GL, ECN, WMC, BREM, VanderHoekPhotonics, Deltares and other partners are joining forces in a Joint Industry Project (JIP). Power-cable failures offshore are often the main risk affecting the development and operation of offshore wind farms.
About 80% of insurance claims in the offshore wind industry are caused by cable failures. To reduce failure levels, DNV GL, ECN, WMC, BREM, VanderHoekPhotonics, Deltares and other partners formed a JIP called “Cables Lifetime Monitoring.”
Cable failures affecting offshore wind operations because they can shut down an offshore wind farm for a duration of months, causing financial and societal impact. Despite the fact that power cables typically form only 5 to 10% of the total investment costs in an offshore windfarm, they account for most of the unavailability of the windfarms.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
As part of the project, a monitoring system will be designed ato monitor the health of the cable during all stages of the cable lifetime. In addition, the JIP will quantify outage costs caused by cable failures to conclude in financial key-figures.
The project will operate from mid-2018 to mid-2020. The results can be applied to both existing and future wind farms as well as for other submarine cables, like interconnectors.
The project is expected to reduce the LCoE, insurance costs and the CO2 footprint of the offshore industry by increasing the reliability of offshore wind energy.
It is still possible for developers, network operators, investors, insurance companies, cable manufacturers and installers of offshore wind farms to take part in the project.