DeepOcean’s Maersk Connector has left the Port of Blyth with the first cables for the 1GW Nemo Link interconnector project between Belgium and the UK.
The company said two 59km-long 400kv HVDC XPLE cables were simultaneously spooled from a freighter onto a carousel on the vessel.
Maersk Connector is now en route to a site near Ramsgate on the UK’s south-east coast, where it will start cable installation and burial using at T3200 trencher, DeepOcean said.
The second phase of the project is scheduled to be completed by DeepOcean in the second quarter of 2018.
DeepOcean has been contracted by J-Power Systems, a division of Sumitomo Electric, for all marine works associated with the installation and protection of the HVDC bundled cables.
The work also includes route surveys and engineering, pre-lay grapnel runs, out of service cable clearance, pre-sweeping in sandwave areas and crossings construction.
The offshore work is scheduled to be completed in 2018.
Nemo Link is a joint venture between National Grid subsidiary National Grid Nemo Link and Belgian company Elia Group and will consist of two subsea and underground cables connected to a converter station and an electricity substation in Belgium and the UK.
Image: Cables on the Maersk Connector’s carousel (DeepOcean)
DeepOcean loads out Nemo wires
Maersk Connector sets sail with cables for first phase of 1GW UK/Belgium link
By EBS