Supply and termination, testing of inter-array cable in Southwest offshore wind project of Korea

Taihan Electric Wire, Co., Ltd., DJ Shin, Korea, djshin@taihan.com

In this paper, the experience of the design, scheduling and supervising the inter-array cable works
of the first offshore wind farm project in Korea are described. The basic specification of the inter-
array cable and system has been already prepared by KEPCO.

The Southwest offshore wind project was based on the plan of a developer KOWP(Korea Offshore
Wind Power). And the inter-array cables of about 2.1km route length between three wind towers
and an offshore substation were laid on the subsea and terminated during the work schedule in
2018.

The scope of work was to supply the submarine cable, fix the cable on the wind tower and
arrange in the transition piece, terminate, test in the end. The other work including PLGR, 1 st
pulling, 2nd pulling, burying was belonged to a marine engineering company, KOCECO.

The used 22.9kV 3-core 200SQ and 22.9kV 3-core 600SQ submarine cable were manufactured in
Dangjin factory away from the site. The Taihan’s factory was located away from the shore but
could even produce the short length submarine cable. An experimental 22.9kV submarine cable
and accessory of similar design which Taihan had produced prior to contract award were
developed according to the KEPCO standard and type tested and certified at all.

Through the work condition, there were a lot challenge as followings;

 Frequent typhoon path way through the site

 Cable arrangement after tower connection to foundation

 Big wave difference of southwest offshore

 Transportation from Dangjin factory to port

 Resident’s strong opposition against the project

 Delayed offshore substation activation and handing over from KEPCO to KOWP

However the project was carried out well and the cable installation and termination was
successfully completed. First two months, cable laying was done by KOCECO and Taihan
continued to arrange the cable in transition piece and to terminate and test during hot weather
season. After installation of the submarine cable, all the test including DC withstand test, phase
check, insulation resistance test, fiber optic test and etc were passed. As a result of the work,
three patents were being applied and the procedure and execution standard related to the cable
works was established.

The 22.9kV cable systems of the three line will be commissioned in April 2019.