DeepOcean’s Maersk Connector has completed the first phase of cable lay operations on the Nemo Link interconnector project.
This is the first project where the vessel utilised its dual basket carousel features, which loaded and installed two 59km HVDC cables simultaneously from a single carousel footprint.
Maersk Connector completed the loading of the first phase on the Nemo Link cables at the end of August.
The project now continues to the next phase where DeepOcean’s Havila Phoenix, with its T3200 trencher will bury the HVDC bundle, prior to the vessels’ return to complete the cable installations across the English Channel early next year.
The second phase is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2018.
The 1,000MW Nemo Link is a joint project between the British grid operator National Grid and Belgian Transmission System Operator Elia Group. The link will run 140 kilometers (km) between Richborough on the Kent coast and Zeebrugge near the city of Brugge with a combination of subsea and underground cables.
Its commercial operation is scheduled for 2019.