Offshore Wind Farm Array Cable Monitoring
The Innovation Exchange programme is working alongside Scottish & Southern Electricity Renewables (SSER), the operator of the Beatrice and Greater Gabbard offshore wind sites. SSER wishes to engage innovators to solve the challenge of monitoring health and predicting faults in offshore wind farm array cables.
Opportunity
Challenge opens
27/06/2022
Challenge closes
02/08/2022
Benefit
Successful applicants will be given an opportunity to pitch their innovation to SSER. Selected solution(s) may be trialled at SSER sites, with the possibility of further rollout if trials are successful.
Background
SSER is a leading developer and operator of renewable energy across the UK and Ireland, with a portfolio of around 4GW of onshore wind, offshore wind and hydro. SSER has the largest offshore wind development pipeline in the UK and Ireland at over 6GW and has an onshore wind pipeline across both markets in excess of 1GW.
In offshore wind farms, array (inter-turbine) cables are installed in jointed lengths from one turbine to its neighbour, forming a string (collection circuit), which feeds into the offshore substation. Array cable faults are not automatically detected and located; in the event of failure, a visit to the relevant substation is required to confirm failure status. A megger tester (or similar) is connected at the associated substation and used to identify a fault location. All wind turbines on the affected array are then offline until the fault is located, and a repair is implemented. Array cable faults are responsible for the majority (around 80%) of insurance claims in the offshore wind sector and are a significant cause of downtime and lost revenue.
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