SSE Submarine Cables Inspection Project

Sub-contracted by 4D Ocean to provide 23 Degrees Renewables with a Senior Surveyor onboard the MPC Advance for the SSE Submarine Cables Inspection 2018 project. Regular inspections are conducted to monitor the behaviour and integrity of the cables, building a better understanding of operational risk and cable condition, dictating the ongoing maintenance plan and influencing cable replacement decisions.

A number of cables are to be inspected in the Northern Isles and on the West Coast of Scotland. Tasked with surveying the region from the 10m contour to the landfall requires careful planning and efficient project execution. Very shallow bathymetric surveys are conducted at high water with a pole-mounted Norbit iWBMS multibeam echosounder that is tightly integrated with an Applanix Wavemaster II inertial navigation system. Visual surveys of the cables are conducted using a Falcon ROV, positioned with a Sonardyne Mini-Ranger 2 USBL system. An Innovatum Smartrak system is also mounted on the ROV to aid cable tracking during sections of burial. The QINSy software suite is being used for data acquisition and post-processing.