OWA publishes new CBRA Application Guide

The Offshore Wind Accelerator has today published a new report to inform industry on how to apply the Cable Burial Risk Assessment Guidance (CBRA) following its launch earlier this year.

05 February 2016

The new Application Guide for the Specification of the Depth of Lowering using CBRA explains how the pioneering probabilistic methodology can be applied to real offshore projects based on actual experience from an operational wind farm. This will help designers use the CBRA Guidance to specify the Depth of Lowering and manage associated residual risks to reduce the installation and insurance costs for subsea cables.

Following the publication of the CBRA methodology the Carbon Trust together with DONG Energy and Statkraft, with contributions from Cathie Associates, has continued to engage industry to help turn the theory of the methodology into best practice.  The now widely accepted CBRA Guidance offers a standardised, repeatable and qualitative method to improve risk management of subsea cables for offshore wind farms.

 According to industry figures shared by specialist offshore underwriter, GCube over 80 per cent of construction projects have resulted in a cable related incident, with over half of claims being attributed to incorrect installation and load out of cables.

Jan Matthiesen, Offshore Wind director at the Carbon Trust commented: “CBRA is fast becoming established as the leading standardised methodology for the Depth of Lowering specification. The OWA is delighted to have received a positive response on CBRA from the industry as a whole. We aimed to fill what was a real gap in the industry and we hope that the new Application Guide will help bring a deeper level of understanding of how to manage risk of cable burial and ensure installations are being planned within appropriate risk parameters.”

Jacob Edmonds DONG Energy Offshore Cable Installation-Project Development Department Manager added: “DONG Energy has participated actively in the development of the CBRA methodology, and we have supported with our experience about installation of offshore cables. We believe that the adoption of the CBRA methodology will lead to the optimisation of the Depth of Lowering specification and to cost savings in many risk scenarios, by avoiding unnecessary steps during installation of cables. Therefore we consider the application of CBRA an essential step towards optimising our future projects in general.”

Robin Comrie, Cathie Associate’s UK Director said: “Having been at the forefront of using qualitative and quantitative risk assessments for offshore wind cables, it is pleasing to see the adoption of the CBRA Guidelines within the offshore wind industry. We are confident that the Guidelines will become the industry standard and the Application Guide will help clarify the CBRA process helping to better define risk and potentially reducing costs.”

Vito Persetto, Statkraft, Senior cable installation engineer said: “Following the publication of the Cable Burial Risk Assessment (CBRA) Guidance by the Offshore Wind Accelerator in 2015, this new Application Guide provides important clarification and discussion around key parameters required to run the methodology in a transparent and repeatable manner. The background work performed to define the input values has been reviewed and checked within the industry, with the aim to reflect state of the art and achieve alignment with best practices. This is considered key in order to establish trust in the methodology and for it to gain traction as the new industry standard way of defining the Depth of Lowering for subsea cables for offshore wind applications”.

The document can be downloaded here: Application Guide for the specification of the Depth of Lowering using the Cable Burial Risk Assessment (CBRA)

 

ENDS

 

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About the Carbon Trust:

The Carbon Trust is an independent company with a mission to accelerate the move to a sustainable, low-carbon economy. The Carbon Trust:

  • advises businesses, governments and the public sector on opportunities in a sustainable, low-carbon world;
  • measures and certifies the environmental footprint of organisations, products and services;
  • helps develop and deploy low-carbon technologies and solutions, from energy efficiency to renewable power.

About the Offshore Wind Accelerator

The OWA is a joint industry project involving nine developers representing roughly three-quarters of the UK’s licensed capacity – DONG Energy, E.ON, Mainstream Renewable Power, RWE Innogy, Scottish Power Renewables, SSE Renewables, Statkraft, Statoil and Vattenfall.