An initial four-month test has been completed in the UK to prove that a subsea battery storage system can power subsea equipment via wave power.
Dubbed ‘Renewables for Subsea Power (RSP)’, the project deployed a battery energy storage system (BESS) five kilometres off the coast of Orkney, Scotland, in the North Sea. This has been regarded by the companies as a “first-of-its-kind” project.
There, the ‘Halo’ battery asset, which had been developed by energy management specialist Verlume, was powered by a Blue X wave energy converter. This was built by Mocean Energy.
The four-month test was devised to “prove the concept of using renewables to power subsea equipment, employing intelligent subsea battery storage to manage intermittency and deliver a continuous power output via the batteries”, the companies said.
According to a statement, the subsea equipment included electronic modules provided by Baker Hughes and simulated the control and communications needed for subsea well heads using renewable energy.
The tests were conducted using a resident autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) provided by Transmark Subsea. This included a range of feature including a docking station that was integrated into the Halo system to create a chargepoint and a communications link to the surface. The AUV was charged 50 times in total.
Following the success of these tests, which showed an integrated alternative to subsea umbilical cables, the test programme has now been extended. The technologies will thus remain in the water and will conduct additional testing deliverables until spring 2024, allowing for further project data to be captured around maintainability, survivability and reliability.
Andy Martin, chief commercial officer at Verlume said: “The successful conclusion of the initial four-month test programme is a significant achievement. We are particularly proud, as one of the project leads, to have demonstrated how our technology can effectively integrate with Mocean’s wave energy converter to demonstrate a viable method of decarbonising future offshore operations.
“It has been fantastic to see the full system deployed, connected and fully operational over this period and we are looking forward to receiving further project data to demonstrate how this integrated system can provide a range of clean power use cases in other areas such as vessel charging, carbon capture and storage, and offshore wind.”
