DEME´s Living Stone Completes Inter-Array Cable Laying Works for SeaMade

DEME Offshore successfully completed the inter-array cable laying works at the SeaMade offshore wind farm with its cable installation vessel ‘Living Stone’ operating at peak production levels.

DEME Offshore was responsible for the Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Installation (EPCI) of the 64 inter-array cables. With a total length of 71.2 km, the cables were successfully loaded out on ‘Living Stone’ and cable laying works were completed in record time. Due to several innovative features on board especially developed for inter-array cable load-out and installation, ‘Living Stone’ operated at peak production levels, laying up to three cables per day.

This unique cable installation vessel features a double firing line, unrivalled quadrant track length, a quadrant upending frame, an inboard cable buffering system and the newly installed Cable Protection System (CPS) storage system which was deployed for the first time at the SeaMade project. These innovations prove to greatly enhance installation efficiency and will enable record cable installation production levels on future projects.

Bart De Poorter, General Manager DEME Offshore emphasises: “This peak performance level could only be achieved thanks to our crew on board of ‘Living Stone’ and the dedicated project team and partners involved. Everyone on board and on shore made exceptional efforts to ensure the project remained firmly on track, maintaining safe operations at all times during the COVID-19 pandemic. This achievement highlights once more the state-of-the art technical capabilities of ‘Living Stone’. The large cable storage capacity, with two turntables below deck, combined with a very high workability, enables DEME to perform the installation works of entire wind farms within a single campaign and with minimum delay due to port calls or harsh weather conditions.”

Mathias Verkest, CEO SeaMade offshore wind farm comments:“I am proud to see another campaign successfully concluded at both of the SeaMade concessions, Mermaid and Seastar, bringing us another step closer to the realisation of the SeaMade offshore wind farm. Both the start and the end of the installation activities took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. This can only be accomplished by a highly focused, quality driven team, making every effort to carry out the works safely and going for the extra mile during these unprecedented times. The 71.2 km of infield cable has been installed in 12 strings which are linked through six interconnecting loop cables located at the end of the strings to create redundancy during future operations. With the construction of SeaMade, Otary’s second and largest offshore wind farm in the Belgian North Sea, we are building a better world for tomorrow, delivering 487 MW of green energy to Belgian households.”