Interview by Rikki  Stancich

Wind Energy Update: Global Marine Systems believes that many of the problems related to the installation of cable that have plagued the offshore wind industry in Europe to date can largely be avoided in North America. What have been the key issues and in what way can these be avoided in the US?

Joel Whitman: Many of our competitors have not survived – there have been many bankruptcies over the past decade in the cable installation sector. We believe this is primarily due to the fact that there were a lot of unrealistic expectations at the project’s financial-planning and contracting stage.  

The cost of cable installation is frequently underestimated. When you haven’t budgeted properly in the early planning stages, downstream in the project it becomes difficult, if not impossible to factor in the right logistics, the reality of the offshore environment, weather, personnel with experience, purpose-built equipment – if all of this is not in place, you will definitely have a problem with the cable laying.

Because cable installation happens bang in the middle of the construction process, any hold-ups can cause significant delays throughout the rest of the project. Even if it takes only an extra 2-3 hours to pull the cable between turbines, when you consider you are doing 100-150 cable pulls into the array environment this can stack up to a two-week delay, which has a huge cascade effect for the rest of the project.

The cable costs are such a small percentage of the cost relative to something like the turbines, which can make up roughly 80% of the budget, so it is not surprising that project managers give less attention to the cable installation. However, there are recurrent blind spots and if the industry wants to control installation risk and cost, this is a perfect place to do it. 

A lot of people refer to the problems surrounding cable laying as if it is an unproven process. There is no mystery; it is all down to thorough project preparation, experienced installers and proper financial planning, which adds up to a smooth project.

By engaging with US projects early on in the planning process we hope that these issues can be avoided.

Wind Energy Update: By how much are costs being underestimated? What percentage of project costs should cables account for?

Joel Whitman: There are no official figures for this that I have seen, but our own internal analysis to see what percentage of project cost is accounted for by cable installation is anything between 8-10%.

And that is not including the acquisition of the cable itself. In some cases in the past I have seen cable installation costs factored in as low as 3-5%. This gap is where the problem often starts.

Wind Energy Update: Figures suggest that although cable laying represents only 7% (or as you say, 8-10%), of the capital cost of the wind farm, often 70% of insurance claims from wind farm operations relate to cable damage. How can this be avoided?

Joel Whitman: When you look at the list of insured liability pay outs, the majority seem to be directly related to cable installation issues. The recurring issues lie with damage during installation, delays in the installation process and the cascade effect on the remainder of the project.

Wind Energy Update: When it comes to cable O&M, there appears to be a gap in the market. What is current practice for cable O&M and is this a service that Global Marine Systems will provide in the future?

Joel Whitman: Currently there is no industry standard O&M business model for power cable damage at offshore windfarms. If a cable is damaged, it is often going to be a spot market fix, meaning the cable could be out for weeks or months.

In the telecommunications sector, you have a whole subsection or the industry which focuses on cable maintenance. In the case of Global Marine, an important part of our cable fleet is dedicated to telecoms submarine cable O&M; we have vessels strategically positioned around the world on stand-by for this purpose.

However, there is nothing like that today for offshore wind cable installations. If there is an outage on an offshore wind cable, there are no dedicated offshore wind cable maintenance vessels available for O&M – especially not during the peak installation months.

At this point it is probably too expensive for a single project to keep a vessel on stand-by for cable O&M. Our point of view is that it is necessary to have such a vessel – but the service should be shared across a number of offshore wind farms.

Wind Energy Update: Is it likely that operators will cooperate on cable O&M service offerings and vessel costs in future - to share the costs of a vessel that services several wind farms?

Joel Whitman: To make it cost effective, there needs to be a regional planning initiative where operators work together to do a repair. People do it all the time for turbines.

We are currently participating in such an effort with several leading companies in the market, to provide this kind of O&M offering. Addressing this issue is definitely called out in all of our bids now. If you don’t plan for cable O&M, it will be a very long road.

So the short answer to that question is “yes”. But a lot of folks haven’t really come to understand the importance of cable maintenance – turbines are highly visible, cable is buried and therefore often easily forgotten about. But a cable that is buried and not inspected and maintained is a risk, and we are trying to raise awareness of this. 

Cable O&M is a major issue for consideration and if you are not bringing your cable installer into the planning process early on, then it is unlikely that you will be anticipating these issues fully.

Wind Energy Update: At the planning stage, what are some key strategies that could reduce cable installation costs and project delays? 

Joel Whitman: There are a number of good examples – one very straightforward example would be J-tube positioning. Let’s say you are building 150 turbines. Will you put your J-tubes in the same place every time? In fact, it is the seabed geography, currents, tides and related environmental considerations which influence where the J-tube gets placed, so putting it in the same place every time is not realistic.

So effectively you could be looking at 150 different positions for your J-tubes, which implies 150 different and unique vessel approaches and positions all adding significant complexity to the project and hampering the speed of installation.

You can’t have only one position for the j-tube; nor can you have 150 different ways. Instead, you could have a selection of common alternatives for the j-tube positioning (say, positions 1,2,3 and 4). By planning such a process for pulling the cable, you have an approach that is consistent and highly repeatable.

J-tube cabling position can also have a huge impact on future O&M costs. If you had a whole host of different positions, it will be complicated to get a repair jack-up vessel up to the structure without damaging the cables, and if you are working with myriad different positions, to remember exactly how the cable was installed originally a decade or more earlier, (and how it may have shifted in the meantime.)

In general, there is a need to do things in an efficient, thoughtful, and repeatable way. This is key to avoiding holdups, where lost hours quickly add up to days, weeks, and months in costly delays.

Wind Energy Update: There have been issues raised about substations design. What are these, and how would you say this could be resolved?

Joel Whitman: We have no say in the design, but there should be awareness on how the cable will be pulled in. For example, if a substation is not designed with the cable bend radius in mind (and this has been known to happen), then you have a problem. This could lead to cable damage.or the inability to pull and terminate the cable without modification to the substation. This is something o be avoided at sea.

Wind Energy Update: Is there likely to be a supply shock given the pending global demand spike for cable and installation vessels around 2016?

Joel Whitman: If projections are to be believed, the German market will be in full swing by then, we have the beginnings of Round 3 in the UK, as well as other projects throughout the North Sea. There seems to be increased activity the Korean and Chinese markets, as well as growth starting in the the US market.

Historically the world market for marine DC cable has been pretty limited, offshore wind is changing that, increasing demand greatly. That decade lead in the North Sea and the resulting European know-how is of great value and now is the time for European companies to leverage that.

Wind Energy Update: Is it the rate of progress on the Smart from the Start programme and other intiatives to get the ball rolling on Atlantic offshore wind projects in keeping with industry’s expectations?

Joel Whitman: Of course industry always wants things to happen faster – but not at the expense of poor planning or ill-conceived grid design. There is a need for methodical, well-conceived planning and growth.

Wind Energy Update: Global Marine Systems has just opened up its office in Boston in anticipation of the offshore wind sector taking flight over the next few years. When is tendering likely to begin for these Atlantic coast offshore wind projects?

Joel Whitman: It is still early days – the market in the US is currently on a regional or even a state-by-state basis; fir instance what happens in Massachusetts is very different from what might be happening in say Virginia or New Jersey. To understand the market as it now is, it is important to understand these differences.

To make matters more interesting you have the permitting side, divided between state jurisdictions up to three miles offshore, after which point permitting falls under Federal jurisdiction – all of which requires careful planning and consideration.

Activity is increasing, there is a lot more going on today than say a year ago. Projects are in the planning and permitting stages and considering the emphasis mentioned earlier on the need for thorough planning to ensure a smooth and cost efficient installation, there is enough going on at the moment to make it a good time to set up project offices and get involved in the planning process.

To respond to this article, please write to the editor: Rikki Stancich