Incidents resulting from the installation and operation of high voltage subsea cables in the offshore wind industry led to insurance claims of more than €60m in 2015, according to a report from GCube Underwriting.
The report – Down to the Wire: An Insurance Buyer’s Guide to Subsea Cabling Incidents – said that subsea cabling incidents are the biggest cause of financial losses in the sector.
GCube said it is crucial that the industry starts to address a “problematic bottleneck that can cause 100 days or more of unscheduled project delays and create substantial cost overruns”.
It said the frequency of subsea cable failures is low – on average 10 are declared to insurers each year in offshore wind – but the financial severity continues to grow, accounting for 77% of the total global cost of offshore wind farm losses.
The report said that two-thirds of cable faults recorded by GCube are down to contractor error during the installation, “even if these do not manifest until the wind farms are operational”.
Therefore, GCube said there is a growing requirement for quality control during cable laying and also a need for more effective communication and data collection procedures.
GCube head of business development and report Jatin Sharma said: “It’s striking just how often subsea cabling incidents in offshore wind can be traced back to human error.
“A behavioural shift may be needed when it comes to the risk/reward balance developers agree in supply and installation contracts.
“In an industry aggressively driving down costs, there is clearly not enough margin for contractors to try and improve.”
Image: Morgue File
