Who will wire Oregon’s wave energy test site?

A contractor is being sought to build, deliver, and install the subsea power and data cable for the first grid-connected wave energy testing facility in the United States.

The so-called PacWave is a collaboration project between the Oregon State University (OSU), the U.S. Department of Energy and other stakeholders to build a wave energy test facility off the Oregon coast.

PacWave consists of two sites (North and South), each located a few kilometres from the deep-water port of Newport in Oregon.

This cabling call is specifically for the PacWave South on the outer continental shelf in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 11.3 kilometres offshore Oregon, which is set to become the first U.S. pre-permitted, full-scale, utility grid-connected test site for wave energy devices.

PacWave South, formerly known as Pacific Marine Energy Center South Energy Test Site, will feature four pre-permitted, offshore test berths in up to 80 metres of water.

In May 2019, OSU filed an application for a license to construct and operate the PacWave South project.

In January this year, The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued the ‘Finding of No Significant Impact’ for the research lease based on the analysis in the environmental assessment and offered a research lease to OSU for the PacWave South project.

Shortly after, PacWave and Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC) issued an industry-wide call, seeking feedback on best practices and how to meet the WEC community demands with the future test site.

At full capacity, PacWave South will have the potential to generate up to 20 megawatts of power, which will be transferred to the local electrical system.

The primary purpose is to facilitate the testing of up to 20 commercial-scale wave energy converters (WECs).

Each of the above mentioned four berths will be equipped with a dedicated subsea power cable for transmission of electric power to a shore-based facility.

Specifically, the project requires five subsea power cables, each 17 to 22.3 kilometres in length.

The fifth cable will support auxiliary monitoring equipment and will be identical in design and production to the four power cables and will serve as a project spare power cable if required in the future.

In total, the wave energy test site will be wired by approximately 100 kilometres of subsea cables.

The OSU, which is seeking to purchase the cables and the related services, has set a deadline to submit business proposals for 16 February 2021.

The overall project goal is to complete cable installation and commissioning by 1 September 2022.

OSU said it requires each cable to be designed to support operating voltages of up to 36 kV.

Also, each cable system needs to be suitable for transmission of up to 5 MW of electric power to the monitoring facility.

The cables will traverse routes requiring total cable lengths of up to 22.3 kilometres from the offshore test berth to a shore landing site at Driftwood in Seal Rock, Oregon.

Each subsea cable will be buried along the route to a nominal depth of 1 meter or more below seabed, or otherwise protected.

During cable-laying, diving operations will likely be required in the nearshore zone to stabilise the cables exiting the shore landing conduits and protect the cables crossing a rocky seabed.

When it comes to fiber optics, OSU requires the cable with a minimum of two separate fiber optic elements, each containing twelve individual fibers. A third optical fiber cable element may be provided as an option as insurance against fiber element damage during cabling operations.

According to the latest reports, PacWave South is expected to be operational and ready to work with WEC technology developers in early 2023.

Oregon State University, which secured close to $40 million backing, mostly from the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (under the Water Power Program Award), has provided the full RFP on its Business and Bid Opportunities website.

Those interested in detailed information on the cable system can gather more info through PacWave Cable System Overview.

And finally, cabling firms who want to know more about the technical data related to these cables, apart from the above mentioned, as well as recent marine surveys, OSU has made available all the necessary documents on Box.