Global Marine Group (GMG), has worked in close collaboration with offshore technology company Osbit and its first confirmed client for the new plough, Vattenfall, to design the tool to meet genuine market demand. The plough is optimised to help deliver reductions in the cost of offshore wind installation and to minimise project risk by combining operations to reduce the time required to install subsea cables.
The plough offers unrivalled single pass capability, which enables boulder clearance and pre-trenching up to 1.7m in a single run, leaving a boulder cleared swathe and a ‘backfill-ready’ open trench with segregated spoil. The plough is also fully subsea adjustable and features an extensive surveillance suite for accurate and effective trenching.
The plough can be reconfigured into backfill mode, which uses the same control and surveillance suite to monitor the cable and trench profile, enabling reliable backfilling whilst ensuring the safety of the cable at all times. Osbit’s innovative forward skid arrangement and surveillance equipment provide market-leading levels of cable integrity assurance.
Martyn Drye, Director of Engineering at Global Marine Group, said, “Our new PLP240 will allow us to reduce the time to first power production by shortening the wind farm construction phase, and therefore delivering an earlier return on investment for our developer clients. Through intelligent engineering alongside the Osbit team, we’ve created a versatile solution which integrates cable route preparation, cable laying and trenching – an industry first. The PLP240 complements our existing fleet of subsea trenchers and ploughs, offering clients a solution that’s right for them no matter in which subsea sector they operate.”
Osbit Director Robbie Blakeman commented, “We are very proud to have delivered this class-leading subsea plough to Global Marine Group. We are committed to developing globally innovative subsea trenching solutions using our proven modular technology and the delivery of this project reinforces the effectiveness of this approach”
Mr. Blakeman continued, “I would like to thank Global Marine Group and Vattenfall for their genuine collaboration, which was key in supporting the project’s smooth execution, as well as our local supply chain, which played a major part in enabling this successful delivery.”
Following contract award in January, Osbit completed final assembly and sign-off at the company’s Port of Blyth assembly facility, at the end of May. The PLP240 will undergo rigorous wet testing before commencing work on Vattenfall’s Danish Kriegers Flak project in 2020.
