JDR Cables and ORE Catapult share a highly successful partnership which was established over a decade ago, and has enabled JDR to bring new and highly innovative cable products to the offshore wind market.
In that time, JDR Cables has invested significantly in its UK manufacturing footprint.-later in 2025 they will be opening a new £130m facility close to ORE Catapult’s testing and validation facility in Blyth, Northumberland. These facility investments will allow the company to increase production for domestic projects and exports to some of the most high-profile offshore wind projects around the world. In addition, JDR has established education and training for its employees with local education providers.
In parallel, ORE Catapult has increased its capability and investment in its high voltage services – as well as apprenticeships and internships – to continue to provide world-leading research, test and validation expertise for JDR Cables and maintain a UK collaboration success story at a time of substantial growth in the offshore wind industry.
Pioneering 66kV technology
The relationship with JDR Cables strengthened back in 2016, with ORE Catapult engineers working with them to bring their pioneering 66 kV cable technology to market, providing electrical testing throughout its development, qualification and type testing programmes. The scaling up of cable voltage from 33 kV to 66 kV was essential in response to the increase in size and capacity of offshore wind farms, placing greater demands on the inter-array subsea cables that connect the turbines and substations. By doubling the voltage of the industry-standard 33 kV inter-array cable, JDR Cables’ technology facilitated increased transmission between turbines at higher-capacity wind farms – a vital factor in reducing the cost of offshore wind, but also essential to JDR Cables’ ability to compete in the global market, as well as grow and expand its UK operations.
James Young, Chief Strategy and Compliance Officer, JDR Cables said:
“We identified early on the industry’s need to move from 33kV to 66kV, and that we wanted to develop several different cable technologies, so we worked together with ORE Catapult to test those products and validate and verify their performance. That resulted in significant investment by both JDR Cables and ORE Catapult and consequently we’ve been able to demonstrate that our cables are designed for the long term in the offshore wind sector and that has really given us an edge.”
The UKAS-accredited high voltage laboratory at ORE Catapult’s National Renewable Energy Centre is one of the few facilities in the world with the required capacity to carry out automated step-breakdown testing of 66kV systems. Its capabilities include the ability to exert up to 20 times the rated operating stresses on the cable. As a long-term test partner of JDR Cables, ORE Catapult developed a bespoke facility to validate and de-risk the new cables, giving the company – and its potential clients – the confidence that this first-of-its-kind technology can withstand the higher loads and harsh conditions offshore. The development, qualification and type testing programme included validation of terminations and cable accessories.
This soon migrated into wet ageing techniques, mechanical handling and materials analysis as part of the ORE Catapult service, and was inherently collaborative with the supply chain, developers and other stakeholders playing key roles.
Securing contracts, exports and growth
After the unveiling of the new cables in July 2016, what happened next was unprecedented. JDR Cables was awarded its first 66kV array cable contract in December that year, to manufacture over 20km of cable for Vattenfall’s 96.8MW European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) in Aberdeen Bay. In April 2017 there was further success for the cable maker, with a contract to supply 155km of 66kV cables at ScottishPower Renewables’ €100m East Anglia One – the world’s first commercial deployment of the technology.
The 66kV success story continued, as JDR received contract awards in 2018 to supply 100km of cable for Orsted’s Hornsea 2 Project, one of the largest wind farm developments in the world. In 2019, JDR Cables entered its 66kV product into the floating offshore wind market when Equinor contracted them to supply dynamic cable for first floating offshore wind project to power oil and gas platforms, HyWind Tampen.
In August 2021, Jan De Nul Group announced it had subcontracted JDR Cables to supply and install 130 miles of inter-array cables for the Vineyard Wind 1 project in the United States. The 66kV inter-array cables connected 62 GE Haliade-X turbines to an offshore substation for transmission to the grid, further demonstrating the company’s continued export and new market success, as a result of working with ORE Catapult to bring the 66kV cable product to market.
James Young said: “ORE Catapult plays that pivotal role in enabling us to get our technologies out there and satisfy our customers that we have the product assurance in place to make sure our product is successful in their offshore wind projects.”
Investment, job creation and collaboration in North East England
The success of the 66kV cable product was further underpinned by JDR Cables’ commitment to North East England operations and ORE Catapult’s UKAS accredited high voltage laboratories in Blyth to support JDR Cables’ research and development programmes.
This partnership was further bolstered in 2024 by JDR Cables unveiling their new £130 manufacturing facility in Cambois, just across the river from ORE Catapult’s test and demonstration facility in Blyth. The move is set to create 170 high-quality local jobs on completion and safeguard 270 jobs at existing facilities.
It also provided an opportunity to cement the UK’s leading reputation in subsea cable manufacturing and the introduction of 132kV cables to the market, as well as significant regional impact through job creation, supply chain growth and skills investment.
Next generation 132kV cables
In June 2025, JDR confirmed they had successfully completed two new type test qualifications at 132kV for static and dynamic array cables, including over 1.5 million tension-bending cycles, doubling the voltage of current industry standards.
This success marks a critical step in delivering UK-manufactured high-voltage cables, ready to support larger turbines and deliver power over longer distances into deeper waters, supporting the next generation of fixed and floating offshore wind projects.
JDR’s static cable development and testing was supported by a Development Grant from the Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP), produced in collaboration with a leading materials supplier, with extensive testing performed at ORE Catapult.
JDR plan to manufacture their innovative 132kV cables at their upgraded Hartlepool facility and at their high-voltage cable manufacturing facility in Cambois, near Blyth.
The installation of next generation offshore wind turbines at 20MW and above, further offshore, require higher voltage cables. By doubling the voltage of the industry-standard 66kV array cable, JDR will allow increased transmission between turbines at higher capacity – a vital factor in reducing the cost of offshore wind for consumers.
The successful type test qualification of the fixed foundation 132kV static cable technology is further supported by the successful completion of JDR’s second high-voltage cable development, under the Department of Energy Security and Net-Zero’s Floating Offshore Wind Demonstration Programme.
Joe Cole, Technology Manager – Power Cables at JDR, said: “We pride ourselves on providing solutions to the energy sector ahead of time, and with our 132kV technology, we will do exactly that. Dynamic cables for floating wind and advanced 132kV cable technologies are critical for the progressive deployment of both fixed and floating offshore wind, enabling developers to not only deploy larger turbines but also to site floating offshore wind in deeper waters, further offshore. It’s an exciting time for the industry and we are right at the forefront by developing, validating and delivering new solutions for the benefit of the offshore energy industry and electricity consumers.”