Global Offshore has signed an export cable repair framework agreement with Balfour Beatty Investments and Equitix (BBE), covering the Humber Gateway, Gwynt Y Môr and Thanet Offshore Transmission Owners (OTFOs).
The framework agreement, which began in February, covers a total of 152km of export cable.
The service is supported by Global Marine Group’s fleet of cable ships and CTVs, a stock of universal power joints and cable, with access to jointers, prepared to respond to a fault or incident on any of the OFTOs covered by this agreement.
“BBE has developed a suite of contingency plans to address all credible events that could impact on OFTO availability,” said John Sinclair representing BBE.
“The contingency plan for a subsea cable fault identified the potential time and cost savings that could be achieved by entering into a framework agreement with a marine repair contractor, so BBE is delighted to have signed this five year agreement with the Global Marine Group.”
The agreement sees BBE join Transmission Capital Partners, Ørsted , Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks and Vattenfall all with export or inter-array cable being safeguarded under similar agreements with Global Offshore.
“Export cable faults have serious implications on the amount of energy that can be harnessed and utilised from an offshore wind farm, so proactive intervention before they happen as well as quick action when they do occur make all the difference to minimising any loss in revenue,” Director of Power Cable Maintenance at Global Offshore, Andrew Lloyd .