CHALLENGES TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROJECTS OF NEW SIGNIFICANT SEABED USER AND MARKET TECHNOLOGIES

Transcription

1 CHALLENGES TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROJECTS OF NEW SIGNIFICANT SEABED USER AND MARKET TECHNOLOGIES Rod Seville (HAi Limited) HAi Limited, 13 Church Road, Kelvedon Hatch, Brentwood, Essex CM145TJ, UK Abstract: The increasing marine developments in offshore renewable energy technologies, projects and seabed allocation for various alternative energy methods of generation will present challenges to owners of submarine telecommunication cable systems in planning, installation, operation, maintenance and eventual decommissioning. The industry should look ahead to innovate the development of new processes to ensure systems integrity and minimise costs. 1.0 INTRODUCTION The Renewable Energy industry has developed rapidly over the last decade following Kyoto in Leading governments declared the requirement for significant power generation to be developed from new Green technologies to reduce carbon emissions and reduce atmospheric pollution which is leading to global warming. To stimulate companies to develop & commit major investment in projects to development these technologies governments formulated a range of stretch targets (% of total National generation) to be achieved by 2020 and they created financial mechanisms to stimulate corporate commitment. This has lead to the successful start of projects implementation and developments in new alternative embryonic technology applications. In addition power industry visionaries have proposed the development of a trans- European submarine transmission network integrating national transmission networks on a regional international scale; This overlay project is aptly named SuperGrid. The projected scale of these developments will ultimately result in larger and larger sections of seabed being occupied by more and more complex regional power networks and this impact on regional submarine telecommunications network planning, operation and decommissioning. At this time most of the development is occurring in European waters however given the technology developments evolving, applications will spread to other global regions so it is opportune for the submarine telecommunications industry to understand and appreciate the scale and rapidity with which developments are already occurring 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES The submarine telecommunications industry has progressed from Megabits to Terabits on cables that have changed little structurally except in more complex and this has resulted in little more seabed occupancy. In contrast, future power Copyright 2010 SubOptic Page 1 of 8

2 generation levels required from the politically driven new Green technology are still at an embryonic stage and increased requirements have to be met by increased construction of both larger generating equipment and by the deployment of multiples of the equipment into offshore areas known as Farms. The costs will run into 10 s of / /$ billions connected by their own cable networks (within farms) and by export cables for transmission of generated power back to shore for interconnection into the national power grid networks. Equipment capacity is currently measured typically in Megawatts (single) / Gigawatts (multiples), and is a function of the equipment generator design size and of the levels extractable natural sources of power and since the different natural resource sources (wind/tidal/wave levels) do not coincide, it is probable multiple technologies will be deployed in different seabed/surface areas. Technologies are in varying levels of development with wind generation being by far the most advanced and already being harnessed by major offshore developments. Wave technology is probably just second and current/tidal technology reaching the end of major trial pilot schemes. Static Wind Tower Multiple Blade Turbine Floating Wind Tower Water Column Conversion Unlike telecommunications which has made quantum leaps in technology without significantly affecting the seabed areas occupied, the offshore renewable power generation industry still has many advances to achieve across many areas of the projects to achieve similar evolutionally progress, thus, in the short to medium term, developments are will focus on producing larger equipment variations to achieve higher generation needs whilst at the same time resolving many challenges faced in deploying larger and larger Farms. The following images show just a few of the different technologies under installation and/or development in European waters, all of which will be Dual Blade Turbine Wave Capture So, how is this technology evolving? With the exception of wind energy generation and one or two smaller awarded contracts for other technologies, the development of a larger proportion of the other offshore renewable technologies is embryonic in development / awaiting further funding or deployment in pilot trials. These latter technologies are for concept proving and generate kilowatts only at this stage with plans to develop Megawatt machines downstream once technologies have been qualified as viable. Copyright 2010 SubOptic Page 2 of 8

3 Wind technology, currently the leading technology is experiencing major offshore growth with contracts awarded and larger medium term development areas already allocated for extensive development up to associated cable networks whilst extrapolating this to reach the total will result in c.11,000 turbine towers occupying a total of c 48,000 sq km of seabed/surface area within European waters 3.0 WIND INDUSTRY GROWTH The European region has been the most advanced and largest region to deploy this infant energy generation technology to date. Developments thus far have had little impact on the submarine telecommunications cable sector although there have been instances of cable crossing issues to be dealt with and this area of respective industry interfacing will increase in the future and disputes will arise (one has already happened) To appreciate the scale of the growth requirements to meet government targets from green energy, diagram 1 shows just the offshore development projected for total European delivery requirements for 2020 resulting in up to 50 GW with the UK accounting for in excess of 30 GW or, as has been allocated by the UK government 28,500 sq km of seabed area for wind alone, other European country developments being additional Diagram 1 Projected annual & cumulative UK & European offshore wind energy construction installation up to 2020 in GW The UK government equates this requirement to the construction of (diagram 2) new wind turbine towers and Diagram 2 - Projected number of turbines installed offshore UK to To place this in context, the EWEA have recently published figures sowing the 199 new turbines were in stalled during 2009 which was a 54% increase on the level of So it is clear the level of installation is set to increase dramatically over the next 10 years if the collective governments of Europe are to achieve their targets. Given these figures exclude the deployment of other alternative energy generation technologies that will achieve commercial viability, and also require seabed or surface allocation, it is apparent that more areas of the seabed will become either inaccessible for submarine telecommunication cable routing and landing or result in diverted routing and/or alternative landing sites having to be accepted which may not be preferred locations. Submarine telecommunications cables we assume will always be installed, and developments in this new generation industry will continue after telecommunications cables have been installed but as is likely governments will allocate more development blocks for offshore development in optimum areas Copyright 2010 SubOptic Page 3 of 8

4 where the technologies can extract power from the natural resource. It is therefore hypothetically possible that a requirement could arise for re-routing of a submarine telephone cable thereby necessitating operational cost increases and consideration should be given to such occurrences now ahead of having to confront such issues. This means giving consideration to how to manage the conflict for this seabed space. Additionally, maintenance requirements may involve more costs and modified repair or decommissioning method procedures, particularly in regard to maintenance health and safety requirements for close proximity working to the power cables networks and cable crossings which are surely to abound Beyond 2020 it is difficult to forecast rates of sea area allocation for power generation but initial projections by several analysts indicate the generation levels will continue to expand in potentially two ways: (i) New farm developments, equivalent or larger will be announced in the regions & (ii) Old farm systems would be re-powered after their nominal 25 year license expires with potentially larger turbines per tower subject to the tower & cable network load factors of safety. 3.0 FARM CONFIGURATIONS Depending upon the natural resource being tapped, generation will be of different configurations based upon the generating technology adopted, but all pieces of equipment will be connected by cables in links which appear as single lines (strings) feeding directly back to shore or they will be coupled as multiple configurations to an offshore transmission platform where they will be aggregated (offshore wind farm) where transition to higher power levels will be achieved before the transmission of the resultant power is facilitated to shore. Currently with wind farms the cables between turbines (inter array) are 33kV rated and on average nominally 600m each in length with the cables to shore (export cables) rated at 132kV of nominal length as per the distance of the farm offshore. In the latter case there are a minimum of at least two export cables. As wind farms increase in size (MW/GW generation size) and the economic value of the product becomes highly significant, it is probable that the number of export cables and their rating will increase and reach multiple spaced landing points to ensure network integrity in the event of any single export cable failure. This will be a requirement because of the load factor ratings of individual cables and also to allow power switching in the event of a single export cable failure. With the most recent UK announcements of development areas (blocks) it is probable there will be multiple export cables for network integrity and cost whilst very important will become a secondary issue to ensure continuity of supplies The UK offshore sites allocated are large and of irregular shapes determine by water depth and identified wind speed patterns and the distance to shore. As such development blocks become larges as is likely post 2020, the potential to impinge on submarine cable routings will increase. The deployment of near shore, shallow water technologies, wave & tide/current, configurations offshore area will be differently shaped since the energy to be captured is derived from a different energy reservoir which has been shown to be more favourable for capture close to shore. In the case of wave energy capture, generation equipment will be directed seawards but with latitude to move in an arc as the wave direction varies thereby allowing the equipment to capture energy Copyright 2010 SubOptic Page 4 of 8

5 from differing wave directions within the area of movement. For current/tidal energy extraction, the equipment will be secured to the seabed in the direction of current/tidal flow and predominantly submerged with only small structures above the waves where the equipment is raised or lowered for maintenance purposes. The equipment will be staggered in order not to induce significant current flow dampening and accordingly equipment strings are likely to be smaller but more spread out making the effective area either relatively larger to be in small multiples for the generation farm. Additionally, the strings are likely to be deployed along the coast line running in the direction of the shoreline and the farm footprint will be of irregular oblong shape, typically at this time viewed as c 100m wide x 1 km long area for a small c 50 MW generation farm. Larger generation requirements would result in marginally wider but longer fields due to the current strength being stronger in the shallower waters thus benefits and economics of deploying such equipment at large offshore distances are at this time considered unviable. It is to be noted that none of these different technology farm site deployments are concurrent with one another in the same allocated area due to the different extraction energy sources and so the near shore technologies could likely restrict access to foreshore for submarine telecommunications cable landings depending on specific geographic locations. A lot will depend upon where governments allow such technologies to be deployed but submarine telecommunications cables seeking to land on shore may have to be routed around distant offshore wind farms and threaded between the near shore tidal/current farms (at additional cost), or land onshore in less preferred locations with resultant increased civil works, cable length requirements & costs. This would only apply where farms were already deployed so the planning stage of the communications cable routing remains very important, but the timing of cable installation may also be a significant influencing factor where there could be conflicts of interest in certain seabed areas if competition were to arise for mutual clams of location. This highlights the need for awareness of such other major developments but also the project program timing such that it could be more financially attractive to install a cable earlier than wait to post installation of a new energy project. The following table provides a general summary of the current & proposed technologies deployment parameters. It should be noted some will be highly visible above the surface whilst others will be on the surface and the third group predominantly submerged and farm outlines semi invisible. All should have navigation passive radar reflection systems fitted. Installation water depth Distance Offshore Wind - Static tower 50m 100km - Floating tower 120m 700m variable Wave 50m 20km Tidal / Current 50m variable Table 1 - Summary of current technology parameters 4.0 LONG TERM - SUPERGRID Beyond the topic of offshore renewable energy generation, but a potential integral part of the industry, European utilities and governments are studying an ambitious project for the development of a submarine regional international power transmission network known as The Supergrid (see below). Copyright 2010 SubOptic Page 5 of 8

6 Although many years ahead at this time, the Supergrid will be a politically driven project. This objective of the evolution of such a pan European power generation and transmission network will be to provision stability of energy supplies and to facilitate exchange of energy between differing demands of peaks and troughs in demand in respective countries. Figure 2 Supergrid node concept. 5.0 SUMMARY The drive towards Green energy has stimulated a new offshore industry which is already showing signs of exponential growth to achieve government set targets. Figure 1 Supergrid schematic The current advanced thinking for the Supergrid envisages the incorporation of Sea located nodes into the network to allow existing (distance) restricted offshore projects to be constructed more economically (shorter export cables) to such nodes to feed energy directly into the transmission level network at nodal points (hubs). The international investment & collaboration in such a mega project will be enormous, will take time and will initiate larger offshore farms with consequent larger occupation of seabed/surface area. The power generation cable networks will thus be integrating with the transmission cable networks directly transiting power to shore. The diagram below indicates simplistically how this is envisaged to be achieved. A broad range of different development technologies are materialising but not all will achieve major development deployment. The size and location of the various technologies will differ geographically but collectively they will occupy increasing seabed allocations. Currently those technologies deployed and immediately planned will be restricted to direct connectivity to shore via export cables but for the longer term, offshore nodes will facilitate migration to new developments to be connected at sea to the transmission network at strategically located nodes With the potential development of floating offshore wind farms, larger and more complex power networks will become increasingly feasible. 6.0 CONCLUSIONS Whilst the new offshore renewable energy industry has had no significant influence to date on submarine telecommunications cable networks, it is probable that this will Copyright 2010 SubOptic Page 6 of 8

7 happen within the next decade t immediately within the European region and perhaps within two to three decades elsewhere in the world given the European rapidity of installations. Other regional countries are also now rapidly planning to adopt these new technologies as well as other significant variations suitable for their own requirements. For example, power & desalination technologies combined Now is the time to consider reviewing the potential ramifications of this new technical in project planning, operation and final decommissioning challenges as where there is overlay there will be inherent additional costs perhaps even to the extent of re-routing existing installed cables. Perhaps new procedural methodologies will be required for proximity working close to electrified environments and to deal with and resolve issues that may arise. Other global area where mixes of these technologies could readily be deployed are the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Far Eastern regions where clusters of countries with coastlines are geographically close enough to make installation of such technology attractive. These regions are also areas of high telecommunications cable densities and without too much thought, the impact can be readily envisaged. Early consideration of the challenges presented by the new energy sector raise areas for recommended study such as: 1 Use of cable corridors either telecom exclusive or specially configured for joint utilisation 2 Integration of certain activities / routes with power cable network developers exclusion of others. 3 Costs of retaining out of service cable & landing points to preserve cable routes 4 Development of offshore hubbing technology for multiple international cable systems perhaps with diversified larger fibre count co-shared unrepeatered links to shore. 5. Use & shared costs of utilising energy hubs as sources of power amplification for telecoms systems. 6 Development of methodology procedures for working in close proximity to electrified environments 7. Procedures for dealing with potential telecoms cable re-routing how to negotiate timescales / costs/compensations. (Impacts on operator business) 8 Decommissioning costs and incorporation of such costs to the front end of cable project planning budgets. 9 Project planning cycle review & issues of route access 10 Benchmarking of mutual landing site criteria. This century and the next will see a significant rise in this new energy industry deploying various seabed & surface technologies exclusively occupying seabed footprints for their operations. The degree of impact will vary region by region but certainly there will be some impact on the submarine telecommunications industry. References: 1. The Crown Estate UK Offshore Wind area allocation details 2. Renewable UK (ex British Wind Energy Association) 3. European Wind Energy Association statistics Copyright 2010 SubOptic Page 7 of 8

8 4. BVG Associates Report on projected market Growth & Supply Chain Challenges 5. Mainstream Renewable Power Ltd The Supergrid 7 Marine Current Turbines Ltd - SeaGen 8 StatOil A/S (Hild Bjelland Vik) HyWind (Floating wind turbine) 9 Wave Dragon Ltd - Wave Dragon 10 Ocean Power Technologies Powerbuoy project 11 OpenHydro Open Centre Turbine 12 SMD Hydrovision TiDEL project 13 LaTene Maps- Future Renewables Map Copyright 2010 SubOptic Page 8 of 8