Offshore wind generation is subject to much harsher conditions than onshore wind, which puts a great deal of pressure on the reliability of critical infrastructure.
One key challenge for offshore wind generation is subsea cable failure, which can lead to a significant loss of power generation and huge unbudgeted repair costs. It has been noted that in offshore windfarms, cable failures account for 75%-80% of the total cost of insurance claims while the total cable expenditure only accounts for around 7%-9% of the capital costs for a new wind farm (Global Marine Energy). Despite this, there is little data available to inform operators how to avoid or mitigate cable failure costs.
Synaptec has developed a game-changing technology that provides far earlier warning of impending cable failures, with permanent and synchronous monitoring of all cable joints and terminations.
According to DNV, 69% of all power cable failures occur in these locations, which are overlooked by traditional monitoring technologies. Synaptec’s sensing technology is completely passive, requiring no power, data networks or maintenance – they are small enough and long range enough to instrument any remote location to give live visibility of how electrical and mechanical stresses are affecting cables over time. This will be critical for the new generation of over 66 kV intra-array cabling, and floating offshore wind, ensuring high availability and buying time to respond to problems before thermal runaways cause total failure and outage.