Royal Boskalis Westminster has placed an order with Samsung Heavy Industries for the construction of a power cable laying vessel. The vessel, with an overall length of 100 metres and with a cable loading capacity of 5,000 tonnes, is expected to be completed in the second half of 2012.
The power cable laying vessel design was developed by a joint Boskalis/SMIT team. Boskalis believes there is demand for underwater interconnector power cables as a consequence of increased energy consumption, geographic imbalances in energy consumption and the growth of offshore wind farms.
Java-Bali cable
Boskalis, in a consortium with two Asian partners, has also been awarded a €20 million (US$28 million) contract to lay two power cable between the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali by the Indonesia State Electricity Corporation (PLN).
This is a full turnkey project in which Boskalis will place two 150kV underwater power cables of about five kilometres in length. Due to the hard and irregular sea bedding and strong sea currents, Boskalis will also place rock to stabilise the seabed and to protect the power cables.
The island of Bali currently suffers a constant shortage of power, obliging PLN to request users to conserve power and to schedule blackouts when existing power generation facilities are due for inspection. This project will provide enough additional power to solve Bali's shortage and facilitate the further development of a popular tourist destination, which attracts around 2.3 million tourists each year.
