The majority of existing offshore facilities have experienced some form of cable problems throughout their lifetime for a range of different reasons, with a general observation that over three quarters of insurance pay-outs for wind farms are related to cable damage. So how can we help manage the risk to subsea cables in the future and what plans can be put in place to ensure their integrity is maintained?
While you may be familiar with the Cable Burial Risk Assessment (CBRA), used during the cable design phase to define the target depth of lowering, it is common for the cable burial to vary following installation either by not achieving the target in the short term, or due to the morphology of the seabed over the lifetime of the development. Our Cable Integrity Risk Assessment (CIRA) is a repeatable process that defines a cable risk and aims to create a management plan for the lifetime of the cables, using predictions of future movement and hazard development to create the most cost-effective solution for the lifetime risk management of the cable assets.
When can you carry out a CIRA?
It can be carried out as part of, or directly after, cable installation to get the risk profile of the cable as-built, providing feedback on where initial additional protection may be required. Or it can be carried out following operational surveys and considered and updated throughout the lifetime of the asset, taking into account seabed mobility, scour and other potential hazards.
To find out more about the CIRA process we follow to create the most streamlined and cost effective plan to achieve full lifetime risk management, why not listen to our presentation by Matthew Laing, our Business Development Manager and Senior Project Engineer, as part of the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) Virtual Plenary, 2021.