Lessons Learned From A 35KV Submarine Power Cable Replacement

With today’s increased focus on reducing emissions, a significant amount of new and existing oil and gas companies around the world are working towards installing and/or replacing segregated generation centers by a centralized approach [12] [13] [14] and feeding the required facilities using a submarine power cable (SPC).Considering the current cost and lead time for these SPCs, it is important to have a good set of multidiscipline specifications, and standards to rule the technical design and testing of the SPCs, as well as having procedures in place to guide the selection, transportation, installation, and commissioning for these SPCs. Even though the industry comes with a significant set of standards to guide the SPC design, not all of them cover the full spectrum of requirements needed for this specialized design and installation. Therefore, complementing specifications with multiple standards is necessary. As the study case shows, over-specifying the technical aspect can confuse manufacturers and add unnecessary complexity to the SPC design. Additional consideration of the issues involved in transportation, testing and installation are required to avoid jeopardizing the final solution.This paper presents the lesson learns from one study case which covers an SPC replacement project from initial technical design through manufacturing, transportation, and installation.