Littleport, Cambridgeshire-based JDR Cable Systems, a developer of custom subsea power cables, has been awarded a contract to supply subsea power cables for the UK’s Wave Hub project by the South West Regional Development Agency.
Wave Hub is a major marine renewables infrastructure project that will create an electrical ‘socket’ on the seabed in some 50m of water around 10 miles off the coast of Cornwall in south-west England and connected to the National Grid via a subsea cable.
Wave Hub will have an initial maximum capacity of 20MW (enough electricity to power approximately 7,000 homes) but has been designed with the potential to scale up to 50MW in the future.
The scope awarded to JDR includes 25km of 33kV three-phase power cables, which will provide the essential link between the Wave Hub and the onshore control room.
The Wave Energy Convertors are connected back to the Wave Hub by four additional 300m three-phase power cables and dry mate connector sets.
JDR will also supply the Wave Hub assembly consisting of the subsea terminations and a complete subsea protection structure.
The package of equipment will be delivered in the second quarter of 2010 from JDR's deepwater quayside facility at Hartlepool Dock. The first wave energy devices are expected to be deployed in 2011.
'Our new quayside facility at Hartlepool Dock is ideally sized for the manufacture and load-out of this 1,500-tonne cable system, and we look forward to supporting the installation process with our team of offshore service technicians,' said Patrick Phelan, managing director of JDR.
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