Green Marine UK Looks to Support UK’s Subsea Power and Communications Network

Offshore specialist Green Marine is expanding its capabilities to support the UK’s vital intercountry power and communication transmission cable infrastructure.

Cable networks form the backbone of the nation’s energy distribution system, playing a critical role in the transfer and balancing of power and communications across regions (both domestic and international). A significant portion of these are high-voltage subsea cables, including the Western HVDC link cable which Green Marine has previously serviced.

However, these extensive domestic and international cable networks remain vulnerable to environmental threats, accidental damage and other geopolitical tensions.

This risk has been underscored by recent events—most notably the major power outage impacting millions across Spain, Portugal, and parts of France. Traced to a fault in a key interconnector, this incident highlighted the vulnerabilities of Europe’s energy grid and the cascading consequences of failure.

Key intercountry cables supporting the UK include the IFA and IFA2 (UK–France), BritNed (UK–Netherlands), Nemo Link (UK–Belgium), North Sea Link (UK–Norway), and the recently commissioned Viking Link (UK–Denmark). Further vital UK links include SSEN Distribution's subsea cable network connecting the Scottish mainland to 60 islands and the upcoming Eastern Green Link 1 and 2, connecting Scotland and England. Green Marine UK has further been involved in the BT-R100 cable network project connecting 15 remote islands around Shetland with fibre optic cables.

In October 2024, Green Marine UK recorded a company milestone completing over 50 complex cable operations. Projects spanned various sectors including offshore wind, oil and gas, subsea data centres and emerging marine energy technologies. Notable contracts include collaborations with Naval Group on Microsoft's Project Natick, and support for tidal energy developers Orbital and Meygen, as well as wave energy company CorPower Ocean. More recent work has involved cable (de)burial campaigns with OEG Renewables for the Seagreen Wind Farm off Scotland, and maintenance work with N-Sea at the Gwynt y Môr Offshore Wind Farm in North Wales.

Operating as a specialist supporting contractor, the firm’s broad experience includes use of Controlled Flow Excavation (CFE) or Mass Flow Excavation (MFE) tooling coupled with novel mooring systems. These range from single point moorings through to multi-anchor spread moored solutions, each with their own operational benefits. Importantly they provide workable solutions in shallow waters where larger DP vessels are frequently restricted.

Other key services include onshore transpooling; the preparation of cable lay tables supported by cable finite element analysis (FEA); cable retrieval to deck utilizing ROV-deployed recovery lines; offshore testing of cable integrity and repair of damaged sections; offshore fitting of dry mate connectors (DMC) and mating these to pulling heads or other half connectors for cable extension; offshore jointing of cables. It further delivers cable burial monitoring with ROV.

Supporting these advanced operations, Green Marine UK maintains a full suite of specialist equipment at its Orkney base, including a cable Reel Drive System (RDS), reels, chutes, winches and moorings.