Proserv to Monitor Cables at Equinor's Hywind Scotland Floating Wind Farm Using 'Disruptive' Tech

UK-based Proserv said Wednesday it had secured a deal to supply its "holistic" cable monitoring system (CMS), ECG, at Equinor’s Hywind Scotland floating offshore wind farm.

The 30 MW Hywind Scotland pilot park, consisting of five 6 MW turbines, is located off the coast of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire in northeast Scotland. It was the world’s first commercial floating offshore wind farm when it launched in 2017.

Proserv will deliver its CMS to analyze the condition and integrity of export and inter-array cables across the wind farm utilizing the fiber optic cores within the cables. The demonstration focused on ECG’s data analytics abilities is scheduled to extend until April 2024, with installation and commissioning set to take place in the third quarter of the year. 

A step-change in monitoring methods

Proserv, which says its ECG solution represents a step-change in traditional monitoring methods, did not share details on the value of the contract.

According to Proserv, ECG offers "comprehensive visibility across cable assets as an integrated, scalable and multi-faceted single package."

The technology has been initiated and driven by Proserv with support from its consortium partners Synaptec, a power system monitoring expert, and BPP Cable Solutions, specialists in subsea power cable engineering and management. The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (OREC) has also given its support to the group during the development of the solution.

"The CMS not only employs distributed temperature sensing (DTS) and distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) but engages Synaptec’s unique distributed electromechanical sensors (DES), via its passive electrical and mechanical sensor systems. The hardware will be complemented by the intuitive human-machine interface, utilizing Proserv’s TIACS software suite," Proserv said.

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According to the company, Proserv’s ECG can monitor the condition and performance of cable terminations, "an aspect needing development in the offshore wind sector."

"Cable terminations are well-known for being a serious failure point and so this technology solution will scrutinize this specific key area of an asset," Proserv said.

Real-time data processing 

During ECG’s demonstration on Hywind Scotland, BPP Cable Solutions will provide advanced real-time data processing and predictive analytics modeling.

This is, according to Proserv, a major shift from traditional reactive cable performance monitoring approaches, where a cable fault or failure is analyzed from stored data after an event takes place.

Paul Cook, Business Development Director – Renewables, at Proserv said: "We are most grateful to Equinor for enabling us to supply our ECG cable monitoring solution to the Hywind Scotland wind farm and to display the potential and power of this technology, including its data analytics capabilities. Owners and operators urgently need a cohesive O&M strategy around their cable assets and with its scrutiny of terminations, alongside its unique predictive insights, ECG offers unrivalled visibility of this key part of an offshore wind farm’s infrastructure."

“Equally, as floating wind scales up rapidly, this arrangement on Hywind Scotland represents perfect timing for us to show what ECG can do.”

In February 2022, Proserv said it had secured a contract for ECG to be implemented on the bottom-fixed Dogger Bank Wind Farm phases A and B to monitor the condition and integrity of the asset’s inter-array cables, representing the technology’s first commercial sale. Dogger Bank, owned by SSE, Equinor, and Eni, will become the world’s largest offshore wind farm once completed at 3.6GW capacity in total.

Davis Larssen, Chief Executive Officer, Proserv Controls said: “The deployment of ECG to Hywind Scotland marks another important stepping stone towards this disruptive technology becoming the benchmark solution for cable asset management in offshore wind.

“In a few short months we have seen ECG selected to support the operation of the world’s biggest offshore wind farm, due to the strength of its proposition, and now it will be supplied to a well-established floating asset, indicating its flexibility, versatility and relevance to the entire offshore wind sector.”