Cables failures are a major challenge for the offshore wind industry. They disrupt operations, threaten hefty insurance claims and inflict eye-watering costs for operators.

Identifying a solution set the path for Proserv’s entry into the offshore renewables market, winning the first contract for its award-winning technology on the world’s biggest offshore wind farm in construction, Dogger Bank.

Paul Cook, vice president of renewables at Proserv (Image: Proserv) The energy transition is “evolution not revolution” according to Paul Cook, vice president for renewables for controls technology leader Proserv.

“While others might perceive this as a revolutionary change, we view it as an expansion of our skill-set, expertise and technology. It’s a matter of perspective; evolution for us, perhaps revolution for others.

“We’re a unified energy company, effectively bridging the gap between traditional oil and gas and renewable energy technologies.”

When Paul returned from two years in Houston on oil and gas projects, Proserv’s senior leaders asked him to lead the business into the renewables market, building on its 60-year oil and gas heritage.

“It took 18 months to understand where Proserv fitted in terms of its skillset, expertise, technology, integration methodology and our value proposition in the renewable space. It was particularly focused on offshore wind and still is today. We have a clear technology-led strategy, which is predominantly underpinned by our ECG™ high voltage holistic cable monitoring system.”

With a solid background in subsea oil and gas, Paul investigated industry challenges. “What was keeping developers and operators p at night? Where could we fill gaps and ease pain for the industry?”

Cables quickly emerged as a huge issue. The team in Great Yarmouth believed that Proserv’s experience of distributed sensing technologies and knowledge of traditional methods for cable monitoring could provide the answer.

What started off as a sketch on paper, became a viable concept and winning response to an industry challenge from ORE Catapult and ScottishPower Renewables (SPR), who appealed to the market in 2018 to identify and explore new methodologies for cable monitoring.

The challenge to develop a new methodology to give operators a holistic view of the cable system came 12 to 18 months into Proserv’s research. Two thirds of cable failures are the terminations and joints, but........

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