Subsea cable stability on rocky seabeds

Overview

Offshore wind and marine energy projects are increasingly located in areas where the seabed is predominantly rock. This causes issues with cable burial activities as it is often either not possible or very expensive in these locations.

This talk will present an overview of the research and technical advances that have gone into the creation of a new British Standard to assess the stability of cables and umbilicals on rocky seabeds.

The methodology allows a significant reduction in stability requirements from more traditional methods and can result in large cost savings as well as environmental benefits from a reduction in secondary stabilisation activities such as rock dumping. This will be demonstrated by the presentation of a case study where the methodology was successfully applied on an offshore wind farm.