Seaway Heavy Lifting (SHL) has started the third inter array cable installation campaign for the Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL) off the Caithness coast.
The cable laying vessel Seaway Aimery supported by the cable support vessel Siem Barracuda and cable trenching vessel Grand Canyon will undertake the work.
The CLV Seaway Aimery will install 41 inter array cables during the third cable installation campaign.
Three trenching trial cables have been surface laid and secured by clump weights. These trial cables will be trenched/recovered during the third cable installation campaign during July/August 2018, the company explained.
Sixteen cables were laid and buried during campaign one in Nov/Dec 2017 with a further thirty four laid and buried during March-May 2018.
The CLV Seaway Aimery will be supported by the TSV Grand Canyon I (or III) for cable burial.
The CSV Siem Barracuda will support inter-array cable installation activities in the Northern portion of the Beatrice wind farm, conducting cable pull in, testing and termination activities, working in parallel with the CLV Seaway Aimery.
The Siem Barracuda will undertake the following work scopes: personnel transfer to WTG foundations and OTMs by Ampelmann gangway, crane operations to transfer equipment to/from WTG foundations and OTMs, work class ROV activities at the seabed in the vicinity of WTG foundations and OTMs, and survey activities along the planned inter-array cable routes linking the appropriate WTG foundations/OTMs.
The Beatrice offshore wind farm will be operated from a base in Wick and capable of providing enough energy to power up to 450,000 homes, when fully operational by the end of 2019.