Submarine Cable Installation Assurance

Overview

The submarine cable industry is undergoing significant expansion, driven by offshore wind farms, energy trading between countries and the demand for internet access.

Submarine cable installations are expensive and highly engineered operations, executed by large construction vessels in often harsh environments. The quality of the installation will be a key factor in the subsequent operational performance of the as-installed cable and any potential for associated cable faults manifesting, which may require similarly expensive repairs to be undertaken.

Using raw sensor data from installation vessels, lay and trenching systems, valuable information is available to aid assessment of both the quality of the cable installation and its ongoing risk, informing operations and maintenance planning and insurance profiles.

In addition, through collecting such data across multiple projects, the performance of individual lay and trench systems in different operating environments and soil conditions can be analysed to inform and guide future similar projects.

Following 10 years’ experience of streaming real-time data from offshore vessels driving our IRIS project management web application, Vysus Group has developed a bespoke module called CableQC, designed to consume installation sensor data, present it within graphs and dashboards, and to visualise interpreted risk along the length of the cable.

CableQC lies at the heart of our Submarine Cable Assurance Service established precisely to capture the relevant information at the right time, and assessed by cable engineering specialists reporting performance and risk, whilst ensuring that valuable and expensive performance experiences or lessons learnt are neither forgotten or repeated.

Submarine Cable Assurance Service breakdown

Through the provision of experienced submarine cable engineering and installation consultancy, we can advise on all aspects of cable installation tendering, contracts and operations including the performance expectation of proposed lay and trench systems within the project environmental and soils conditions.

We review data, experience and lessons learnt from previous similar client projects, establishing benchmarks and expectations.

We identify the raw and processed datasets required from all stages of cable lay, burial, survey and protection activities, which can then be specified within the EPC contract. This data can be streamed in real-time from offshore installation operations using a Vysus Group V-Node data hub or the Contractor’s own marine communications systems.

We supply Offshore Client Representatives who augment the raw data with observations, checklists and reports, tuned to our data and information acquisition requirements. These authorised personnel can upload information directly from the vessel to our IRIS databases via the internet.

We use the CableQC module within our proven IRIS project management web application to consume all available data and information, both real-time and processed, and integrate it within structured databases held securely in the cloud.

Using CableQC, our cable specialists achieve real-time visibility to ongoing offshore operations enabling fast independent advice and guidance regarding installation quality and performance.

CableQC is then used to generate risk assessment profiles for the as-installed cable(s). Risk is based upon bespoke or standard criteria relating to raw and processed data, seabed hazards, seabed mobility, vessel traffic, fishing activity and environmental factors. The risk assessment can be repeated at regular intervals or following intervention, remediation or additional survey work.

You can use generated risk profiles to:

• Inform initial and subsequent operational insurance premium profiles
• Demonstrate the progression of risk over the life cycle of the installed cable
• Optimise operations and maintenance spend
• Assess the performance of cable installation vessels, lay and trench systems

IRIS3/CableQC thereafter becomes an invaluable always-open store of all survey and installation performance data acquired across one or multiple cables or projects. In the event of an incident, insurance claim, remediation or survey activity, data can be efficiently accessed through the prism of the IRIS web map – data that typically is not effectively held or easily accessed within typical document management systems.

Download our whitepaper and learn:

• The importance and value of acquiring cable installation performance data
• About cable insurance claims aspects
• How to present and visualise risk
• Consideration of future projects based upon past performance
• How to ensure that expensive lessons learnt are learnt only once