Fugro has completed a contract for Nexans to provide ROV survey and monitoring support services to lay the North Sea Link cable through a mountain and along a lakebed in Norway. National Grid NSN Link Ltd. and Statnett SF are building an electricity interconnector between Kvilldal in Norway and Blyth in the U.K., which, on completion, will be the longest subsea interconnector in the world.

Fugro’s innovative survey and monitoring solutions supported the installation of two cables through the mountain between Hylsfjorden and Lake Suldalsvatnet, and along the lakebed at a depth of 210 m. Working closely with their client Nexans, the project took 12 months of careful planning and preparation before Fugro provided one month of remote and crewed services to support installation of the two power cables. The cable work platform (CWP), purpose built onsite, was mobilized with an FCV1000 work-class ROV to perform touchdown monitoring during cable installation. During the cable lay, the cable’s departure angle was monitored in near real time using Fugro’s vision-based InclinoCam system, which does not require sensor packages to be fitted onto the monitored asset, making it quicker and safer than conventional monitoring systems.