Subsea Power System Integration and Shallow Water Testing - Joint Industry Project

ABB completed the 3000-hour Shallow Water Test on November 13th which is part of the formal qualification program. The prototypes have successfully been demonstrated for their performance, reliability and endurance throughout the test period. The journey towards the realization of the subsea factory is well on its way, promising the benefits of subsea processing and production. The "Grand Challenge" of placing the power infrastructure on the seabed offers significant economic and technical advantages but also places extreme demands on the reliability, uptime and safety of the technology. Helping to solve these issues has been the focus of this project. The basic concept and the development of components is largely complete, and the current focus is on qualifying and extensively testing the various units: the variable speed drive, the MV switchgear and the control & protection system. This is important as it certifies and validates that the units meet the design requirements, pass the performance and quality assurance tests. Each component needs to be pressure resistant and thermally efficient, being able to operate comfortably in the very harsh environment. It must also be ultra-reliable: they need to operate for 30 years with minimal intervention. It may be compared with sending a satellite into space; once it's up there it is very hard to access. The same is true when placing equipment on the seabed. There are no service engineers at 3,000m underwater. These high-power units are at the forefront of technology and ABB are making a lot of ground-breaking innovative designs to meet the reliability targets. Prototypes undergoing final stage of qualification include full-scale subsea variable speed drive, MV switchgear and control and protection system. These are being put through their paces as part of the formal qualification tests. Technological progress comparable to that of the space program is being made, the future of the subsea factory is closer than it's ever been and the work in this project is certain to have a profound implication for the future of the technology and the industry.

The support from the Research Council of Norway has contributed economically to the successful completion of the 3000h shallow water test, demonstrating performance, relibility and endurance of the prototypes as part of the formal qualification program.