Review of Cabling Techniques and Environmental Effects Applicable

Review of Cabling Techniques and Environmental Effects Applicable to the Offshore Wind
Farm Industry – Technical Report
cutting through the seabed. The cable is then fed through the pathway in the
plough and the wedge of soil placed as cover over the cable. The cable laying
operation involves cable being laid from the host vessel (usually over the stern
of the vessel) with a managed catenary down to the bellmouth entry in the cable
plough. The simultaneous lay and burial of the cable is then achieved as the
cable vessel makes forward progress and the cable plough buries the cable as
described above. Depth of burial is controlled by varying the deployed position
of the hydraulically controlled skids and the plough is fully instrumented with
cameras and sensors to monitor the passage of the cable through the plough
and to also measure pitch and roll, depth of burial, distance travelled by the
plough and residual tension in the installed cable. Figure 3.11 shows a typical
narrow share plough with the range of sensors and components illustrated.
Figure 3.11: Typical Narrow Share Cable Plough Illustrating Sensors
and Plough Components
These types of plough can typically achieve a depth of burial of up to 1.0m in a
wide range of seabed conditions and have been successfully used on telecom,
power cable and UK offshore wind farm projects.
A selection of commonly used narrow share cable ploughs including details of
the manufacturers and owners is listed in Table 3.6.
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