Kraken to conduct Strait of Belle Isle subsea cable survey

Kraken Robotics has secured a Robotics as a Service (RaaS) contract with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, formerly Nalcor Energy, to perform the marine inspection of the Strait of Belle Isle (SOBI) submarine cable.

Kraken will inspect three HDVC cables using its KATFISH towed Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) system including the Automatic/Remote Launch and Recovery System (ALARS) deployed on the research vessel Ocean Seeker.

The Ocean Seeker will head out of the company’s facilities in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and perform 12-hour daily operations of the SOBI submarine cables.

According to Kraken, data will be instantly viewable onboard the vessel during the survey and any cable or rock berm anomalies identified will be geolocated providing the ability to collect additional data as needed.

This $598,871 contract will be executed in Q3 of 2021.

The SOBI submarine cable is a key element in the overall Lower Churchill Project, which includes the construction of an 824 MW hydroelectric generating facility and more than 1,600 kilometres of transmission lines across the province.

Approximately 100 km of subsea HVDC cable and accessories installed in 2018 provide power to Newfoundland from Labrador.