The UK is becoming ever more dependent on offshore renewable energy from the need for our own energy security to the ambitious drive to have 50GW of offshore wind installed by 2030. The reliance on the reliable flow of energy from offshore renewables has never been greater.
The subsea cables, both array and export, remain the weak link in the overall reliability of offshore wind farms and a sudden loss of power from a large windfarm into the National Grid can have a major impact, as was seen in 2019 when Hornsea One suffered a technical fault at the same time as another power plant.
Condition monitoring of these subsea cables, if performed correctly, can give valuable insights to asset owners, and allow them to manage their cables in a much more pro-active way to reduce the chance of a failure, or if one does happen be able to react in a much more efficient manner.
