Subsea engineering and training firm Jee Ltd has been awarded a contract from Scottish Enterprise to develop electrical array cable solutions for tidal energy installations.
The £2.4million contract is part of a pioneering study for the marine energy industry in Scotland and the company will be involved in developing solutions for locating, securing, protecting and recovering cables.
Power generated from tidal energy devices, which have been deployed in high tidal flow areas, will be transported by the cables to the shore.
Jee Ltd is one of five companies to work on the project and has been awarded £138,530 by Scottish Enterprise.
The first task of the project will see three solutions from the five companies presented which will then be chosen to progress through to practical demonstrations next year.
Jee Ltd has created four innovative concepts which have been assessed for the practicalities of installation and retrieval, in order to identify the most suitable solution.
Trevor Jee, managing director of Jee, said: “This contract attests to our decades of experience in providing innovative, subsea engineering services to the expanding renewables industry.
“Jee has completed several projects for major wind farm developers around the UKCS involving the design and development of cable protection systems, analysis and installation of cables, cable route surveys, and burial methodology, and as a result, this experience has positioned us perfectly for this project.”
In the second phase of the project, Jee Ltd will develop a conceptual design for a solution to meet longer term requirements for cable protection in tidal arrays.
The produced solution could involve substantial shifts in the way cables are manufactured and installed.
It could also have a significant contribution to the growth of the emerging tidal energy industry.
Martyn Campbell, a Jee senior engineer who is leading the project, said: “The relatively deep water and fast currents typically found within tidal energy developments make the cable protection solutions more of a challenge.
“The UK is leading the world in tidal energy and it is exciting to be able to contribute to this fast moving industry.”
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