ABB wins $90-million order to supply world’s longest extruded ‘power from shore’ cable

2015-10-9

Located 155 kilometers (km) west of Stavanger in the North Sea, Johan Sverdrup is considered one of the largest offshore oil fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). Once fully operational, production is estimated at 550,000 - 650,000 barrels of oil per day, accounting for nearly 40 percent of total oil production from the NCS.

ABB will design, manufacture and install an 80-kilovolt (kV) extruded direct current (DC) cable system with a capacity of 100 megawatts to transmit power from the Norwegian power grid to the Johan Sverdrup offshore production facility. At around 200 km in length, it will be the longest extruded submarine cable system to an offshore oil and gas platform facility in the world. Supplying electric power from shore for offshore oil and gas production avoids the need to burn diesel or gas out at sea to power the equipment and machinery on the platforms, resulting in substantial reductions in CO2 and nitrogen oxide emissions. In addition to the environmental benefits of powering the cluster of platforms from shore, the cable solution is safer and more energy-efficient than generating the power offshore using fossil fuels.

“Delivering enhanced customer value through close customer collaboration is an important element of ABB’s Next Level strategy and we are delighted to be supporting Statoil with this cable system as well as the HVDC converter stations,” said Claudio Facchin, president of ABB’s Power Systems division. ”With this ‘power from shore’ cable solution, ABB will once again be pushing the boundaries of technology and lowering environmental impact, in line with our vision of power and productivity for a better world.”

In March, ABB was awarded an order to supply the two High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) converter stations for the same project. One will be located onshore at Haugsneset, where it will turn alternating current (AC) from the grid into DC, which can be transmitted efficiently over 200 km to the second station which is on one of the oil platforms. There, the DC current will be converted back into AC and distributed to the rest of the field.

ABB leads the way when it comes to cable systems delivering power-from-shore to both fixed as well as floating platforms. The company’s track record includes Statoil´s Troll A 1&2 with 3&4 currently under commissioning. Other major references include the Gjøa platform which was commissioned in 2010, the Martin Linge platform which will be the world's longest alternating current (AC) cable from land to an offshore installation and the link to the Goliat power from shore installation in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea. ABB also performed the front-end engineering and design for the entire Johan Sverdrup HVDC power-from-shore system.