A joint wind-ustry supply chain project has spent the last year developing
a new set of guidelines to improve knowledge and understanding of submarine
cables behaviour on the marine environment and rocky seabed.
In effect the ‘Cable Bottom Capability’ project – led by Aberdeen-based
Wood Group – has recommended that ‘gold plated’ rules on submarine power
cables for N. Sea oil installations be removed for offshore renewable
energy generators.
Submarine cables are required to connect renewable energy sources such as
offshore wind, wave and tidal power projects with the grid.
However, it was acknowledged that the guidelines that are currently in
place were originally derived from the oil and gas industry and are more
suited towards assessing the stability of pipelines.
This anomaly can result in ‘overly-conservative’ designs with onerous
recommendations and the need for expensive stabilisation systems which
could, in turn, jeopardise the financial viability of new projects – so the
JIP has developed a new set of industry guidelines to address this.
The project group also included EDF, RTE, Naval Energies, VBMS,
LDTravocean, Bardot Group, Silec Cable (General Cable) and DNV GL
This new methodology, which is based on numerical models calibrated with
laboratory tests performed in the wave and current basin of the Oceanide
test facility in France, provides advice on assessing subsea cables
on-bottom stability on rocky and non-smooth seabed.
This comprehensive parametric description of the physical mechanisms
driving cables stability resulted in the implementation of an advanced
methodology for on-bottom stability analysis with a significant gain in
conservatism compared with previous standards.
Bob MacDonald, head of Wood’s Specialist Technical Solutions business,
said: “The CABILITY: Cable On-bottom Stability JIP has really demonstrated
the importance of industry collaboration.
“Our findings have acknowledged that there were over-conservatism issues
but by working together we have developed a new set of guidelines which
will ultimately deliver significant improvement of costs for both Opex and
Capex.”
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