Increased demand for marine power distribution and interconnector projects to support the global energy transition is driving a need for reliable subsea power transmission and an evolution of the industry-standard cable burial risk assessment (CBRA ) approach, which has been in use since 2015. The subsea power cable segment is forecast to grow at an 11% compound annual growth rate to 2032.
Hydrofix Director Russell Venning said that reliable systems are critical to prevent the loss of multi-GW generation on the grid. He said: “Traditional CBRA techniques are two-dimensional and require a route to be designed before it is risk assessed. By taking a recognised probabilistic method and applying this to a 3D volume across a whole cable corridor, we are able to fully appreciate all the risks and opportunities available to us when designing a route and burial protection. Optimised workflows in a proprietary GIS environment deliver this enhanced insight faster and allow for rapid iteration throughout the project life cycle in response to evolution in knowledge of risk and seabed conditions.”
Russell added that Hydrofix, an RSK Group company, has developed CBRA3, a model that takes the conventional two-dimensional CBRA to new levels, allowing cable engineers to visualise the cable risk in a three-dimensional environment and analyse the risk impact of increasing or decreasing the cable depth of lowering instantaneously.
RSK Marine Director Gareth Ellery said that the system was already proving its value on projects, including HVAC subsea distribution projects in Scotland and on a major transatlantic data cable.
“The CBRA3 model can be updated in real time with as-built burial data during installation, providing a clear assessment of the value of repeated burial pass efforts and an appraisal of residual operational risk to the cable immediately after installation. The technology allows clients to make rational, quantitative assessments of cost and risk trade-offs when engineering subsea cable routes and burial, resulting in greater budget clarity.”
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