The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and technology company Synaptec are partnering on a project that aims to reduce costs of subsea cable failures and the instrumentation systems needed for monitoring.
Synaptec’s Refase technology will be installed at ORE Catapult’s 7MW Levenmouth demo project in Fife for a trial lasting one year that aims to establish the cost savings and long term benefits of using distributed, passive sensors to monitor cable performance.
“Subsea cable failures and their resulting outages continue to be a priority area for improvement for the industry, although array cable faults are less well understood than export cable failures,” said Synaptec.
According to ORE Catapult data, recorded cable failures in UK projects have led to lost generation equating to almost £250m of lost revenue.
The project aims to reduce costs by automating the response to faults and developing prognostics capabilities to improve operations and maintenance cost.
Synaptec head of business development Saul Matthews said: “You can’t manage if you can’t measure, so affordable visibility and control of remote offshore assets is urgently needed to drive down cost and make clean energy more affordable.
“Our work with ORE Catapult at Levenmouth will show that transmission-grade distributed sensor systems like this are the best way to address the industry’s single largest operating cost – cable failures.”
ORE Catapult project manager Audrey Bowie said: “The Catapult is committed to working with companies like Synaptec to develop and implement new technologies and processes aimed at reducing cable failures, and, through facilities such as our Levenmouth Turbine, provide a platform for the demonstration and validation of these technologies.”