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JDR Cable Systems (JDR), part of the TFK Group, has won a contract to supply, test and terminate the 66 kV dynamic inter-array cables (IAC) for independent renewable energy producer Qair’s floating offshore wind Eolmed pre-commercial 30 MW project.

A press release said that the Eolmed project is located in the south of France, 18 km off the coast of Gruissan and Port-La Nouvelle in the Occitanie region. It will connect the wind project to the French Electricity Transmission Network (RTE), providing approximately 100 million kWh per year of power. The site will have three wind turbines anchored to the seabed in a water depth of some 60 meters.

JDR will manufacture the 66 kV dynamic cables at TFK’s Bydgoszcz plant in Poland, with final assembly and testing at JDR’s U.K. plant in Hartlepool. The cabling is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2024.

JDR Sales Director John Price noted that the company recently worked on Eoliennes Flottantes du Golfe du Lion’s floating wind project. That experience is helpful as projects continue to involve deeper water depths that require more complete planning analysis.

The contract stems from France’s aim to have 40 GW of offshore wind capacity in operation by 2050. The release said there are some 50 projects to meet that goal, and that Qair was preselected for four of the first eight tenders.

11/5/21 – JDR Cable Systems (JDR), a global subsea cable and umbilical supplier and servicer that is part of the TFK Group, plans to open a new state-of-the-art, 69,000-sq-m subsea cable manufacturing facility in Cambois, near Blyth, Northumberland.

A press release said that JDR has confirmed its intention to go ahead with the project, subject to final agreements, with construction expected to begin in 2022 ahead of a 2024 opening, creating 170 local jobs on completion and safe-guarding 270 jobs at JDR’s existing facilities.

The initial project investment is estimated at £130 million, which will be partially funded by a grant from the BEIS Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Support (OWMIS) scheme. JDR and TFK plan to raise the remaining funding with support expected from financial institutions and U.K. Export Finance.

The new facility is the first stage of JDR’s plans to expand its product portfolio to support the growing global renewable energy market, adding high voltage export and long length array cables to its existing capacity and product capabilities. Further stages of the development could result in over 400 staff working at the site, with supplied products complementing JDR’s existing capacity provided by the company’s U.K. manufacturing centers in Hartlepool and Littleport. When complete, the facility will include a new catenary continuous vulcanization (CCV) line, making it the only facility in the U.K. capable of full start-to-finish manufacturing of high-voltage subsea cables for offshore wind farms to support the growing global renewable energy market.






U.K.-based JDR Cable Systems, Inc. (JDR) has begun construction on a new 65,000-sf-ft U.S. headquarters on a 10-acre site in Tomball, Texas, that will combine three sites that were leased.

Per an article in the Houston Business Chronical that had information provided by JDR, a business of Poland’s TFKable, the site will be used to design and manufacture products for the oil and gas industry. The project, scheduled for completion in the first half of 2021, will allow JDR to expand its intervention workover control systems (IWOCS) rental business to support current demand.

The three leased locations collectively accounted for about 30,000 sq ft of space in northwest Houston. The new facility will include 45,000 sq ft of assembly and testing space, including a 60-ton overhead crane, and 20,000 sq ft of two-story office space. The site will see engineering and management for global projects, assembly of various oil field equipment and support for JDR’s offshore service business. Once the facility is complete, JDR plans to hire additional engineers and service technicians to expand its local presence. It will move 45 existing employees into the new facility and then hire five to 10 employees per year over the next five years.

“Beginning construction of our new Houston headquarters marks a significant milestone for our U.S. business,” said JDR General Manager Brian Davis.

Earlier this year, the Carbon Trust picked five winners of a dynamic export cable competition within its Floating Wind Joint Industry Project (Floating Wind JIP).

A press release said that the successful companies were Norway’s Aker Solutions, Japan’s Furukawa Electric, Greece’s Hellenic Cables, JDR Cable Systems in the U.K. and Zhongtian Technology Submarine Cable in China. The goal is to draw on the expertise of existing offshore wind cable suppliers and the oil and gas supply chain to "support the design, initial testing and development of dynamic cables ranging from 130 kV to 250 kV to enable the efficient transmission of power from floating wind turbines to shore."

The results of the first phase of the project, which will conclude in March 2020, could help to "inform subsequent project phases to support the deployment of dynamic export cables across the industry," the release said.

"The lack of dynamic export cables has been identified as a hurdle that needs to be overcome by industry to ensure the commercialization of floating wind farms, and we are excited to begin work to ensure that this technology is ready in time for commercial floating wind projects," said Carbon Trust offshore wind manager Rory Shanahan. "We are delighted with the response we got from the industry and we are looking forward to working with the five competition winners."

BPP Cables is supporting the competition, which aims to ensure that this necessary technology is a viable option for developers for commercial floating wind projects within the next five to 10 years.

At its website, the U.K.-based organization describes Carbon Trust as "an independent, expert partner of leading organizations around the world, helping them contribute to and benefit from a more sustainable future through carbon reduction, resource efficiency strategies and commercializing low carbon technologies."

In 2017, the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) initiative "launched a new global innovation competition to find and fund the development of innovative solutions to a challenge facing the offshore wind farm industry today: how to monitor the condition of subsea cables to ensure that they are not damaged during the load out and installation process. The competition seeks to identify and support the development of novel condition monitoring systems for subsea cables. "Looking at £213 million in insurance losses from 28 UK offshore wind claims between 2002 and 2015, 68% were directly due to cable faults occurring predominately during the construction phase."

U.K.-based JDR Cable Systems (JDR) reports that it has  won a multi-million pound contract to supply inter-array cables and termination work for Ørsted’s record-breaking, 1.4 GW offshore wind farm, Hornsea Project Two.

A press release said that, when operational in 2022, the wind farm will supply electricity to over 1.3 million homes, and surpass its sister project Hornsea One, as the world’s largest offshore wind farm. The contract calls for JDR, part of Poland’s TFKable Group, to supply 100 km of inter-array cables that will be assembled in JDR’s Hartlepool facility. The inter-array cables link the wind farm turbines together, and carry the power to an offshore substation, which converts it to a higher voltage for transmission to shore.

The project, the release said, is Ørsted’s first in the U.K. to use 66 kV for its array cables, having used 33kV for previous projects. Using cables with a higher voltage helps to reduce electrical losses during transmission.

“This contract builds on experience from previous projects including Race Bank offshore wind farm, which we opened earlier this year, and Hornsea Project One, currently in construction,” said Patrick Harnett, the procurement and construction director for the project. “As our wind farm projects have grown in size, and distance from shore, so too have the contracts we place within the supply chain. The technology we use is also changing as we innovate to build these projects at massively lower cost of electricity into the U.K.’s grid.”

JDR CEO Richard Turner said that, “Hornsea Project Two ... will be built at the lowest ever price seen in the U.K.”

 

JDR Cable Systems reports that it has been awarded a contract by McDermott in the Persian Gulf for a project described as the world’s largest offshore oilfield.

A press release said that the contract for the project, owned and operated by Saudi Aramco, includes five thermoplastic umbilicals and hardware connecting new production platforms to the subsea valve skid (SSVS). The umbilicals, which range from 100 to 465 meters in length, will provide hydraulic and electric control to the SSVS.

The contract with McDermott is part of a larger program by Saudi Aramco to replace Safaniya’s aging facilities with electrified platforms to increase the efficiency and production of the field. The field is located 125 miles north of Dhahran in the Arabian Gulf and is estimated to contain 37 billion barrels of oil reserves.

“This is our fifth combined contract for the Safaniya field and truly demonstrates the quality and reliability of our products, said Chris Green, subsea production umbilicals sales manager at JDR, which was acquired last year by TFKable Group. He noted that speed of delivery was a key element of winning the order. The umbilicals will be manufactured at JDR’s plant in Littleport, U.K., with delivery scheduled for Q4 2018.

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