Electrifying

VBMS isn’t an old company, but it’s making electric cable waves in both the offshore renewables business as well as at its new parent company Boskalis, reports Elaine Maslin.

The Ndurance at work. Photos from VBMS.

Founded in 2007, as a subsidiary of VolkerWessels, Visser & Smit Marine Contracting (VSMC) was get to work. Its first export cable installation was in Belgian waters for the Thornton Bank Phase 1 wind farm and the firm has had involvement in about every wind farm since then, says managing director Arno van Poppel. Indeed, this year, the firm marked its 1000th inter-array cable lay and it is set to be the first to install new 66kV cables on the Blyth offshore wind farm.

In 2013, Dutch marine contractor Boskalis became a 50% shareholder of VSMC, creating VBMS. The move meant VBMS was able to offer a full package, with VolkerWessels providing onshore cabling, horizontal directional drilling and terminations expertise, and a track record in subsea cabling, combined with Boskalis’ marine contracting and services experience. But then on 1 July this year, VBMS became part of Boskalis, after Boskalis agreed to acquire the remaining 50% of VBMS from VolkerWessels. The deal also included the acquisition of VolkerWessels companies Stemat and VSI, including all assets used in Offshore Wind Force, a joint venture between Boskalis and VolkerWessels, which is currently working on the foundations of the Wikinger and Veja Mate wind farms, offshore Germany.

“We are able to offer the full EPIC services for offshore power systems making a connection to the onshore and offshore grid,” van Poppel says. “At the moment, we are the only party in the market with four cable laying spreads working simultaneously.” This is using Boskalis’ Ndeavor and Ndurance vessels and former VolkerWessels’ assets Stemat Spirit and Stemat 82 vessels. And, the firm is capable of more. “When we installed the London Array [wind farm] cables, at that time the biggest offshore wind farm in the world, we had six spreads working simultaneously in the water,” he says.

Installing the first 66kV cable, a technology which has been in development for some years, to meet the increasing capacity of today’s 8MW+ wind turbines, will be a badge of honor for VBMS. Some 14km of the cable, produced by Nexans, will be laid at the Blyth offshore wind farm for EDF Energy Renewables in 2017.

Arno van Poppel

Van Poppel attributes the success to a number of factors. “We do the whole installation first in virtual reality,” he says. “We make all the calculations in every detail before we start sailing. It is about preparation in every detail, improving efficiencies, having the right people on board and being prepared. Anybody can buy or charter a vessel. But a subsea power cable is a delicate product and it needs to be treated carefully. The difference is made by the people installing it, the people on the vessel itself and the crew who have the experience and who knows what you can and cannot do. Making the right judgement and getting it right, the very first time, is making the real difference.”

But, like others in the industry, the firm is keen to help reduce costs, to make sure the business is viable. “In offshore wind, there is some uncertainty about the future. The main reason is that the total supply chain has the clear objective and responsibility to further reduce the levelized cost of energy,” he says. “So far, costs have mainly been reduced because larger turbines have been developed, lowering the cost of a MW/hour. But, we are getting to the edge of that development. To make further progress, I think we have to find different ways of cooperating within the supply chain. It is about transparency, innovation and reducing or managing interfaces more efficiently and reducing risks.”

VBMS is currently working on the Dudgeon wind farm, off the UK coast, the Normandie 1 Interconnector between the French coast and Jersey and it has just finished the cable shorelanding for the Nordergründe offshore wind farm and inter-array cable installation and burial for the Sandbank offshore wind farm “It is a good year for VBMS,” van Poppel says.