The Renewables for Subsea Power (RSP) project has completed a 12-month test program that involved combining wave power with subsea energy storage to power subsea equipment.
The £2 million (US$2.2 million) RSP project connected the Blue X wave energy converter built by Edinburgh company Mocean Energy with a Halo underwater battery storage system developed by Aberdeen intelligent energy management specialists, Verlume.
The final phase of the project will commence shortly and will include removing all equipment from the site, ahead of inspection and cleaning onshore in Orkney, Scotland, and at Verlume’s operations facility in Dyce, Aberdeen.
The industry-backed project has shown how green technologies can be combined to provide reliable and continuous low-carbon power and communications to subsea equipment, offering a cost-effective alternative to umbilical cables, which are carbon intensive with long lead times to procure and install, Verlume said.
In recent months, TotalEnergies and Shell Technology – Marine Renewable Program have joined project leads Mocean Energy and Verlume in the pan-industry initiative, alongside PTTEP, the Thai national oil company, Serica Energy, Harbour Energy, Baker Hughes, Transmark Subsea, and the Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC).
“The test program has been a tremendous success,” said Andy Martin, chief commercial officer at Verlume. “This phase of RSP was initially conceived as a four-month at-sea demonstration, but the quality of data and the robustness of our combined technologies as well as tremendous support from the oil majors, led us to extend the program to a full year. We now have increasing confidence in the reliability and the commercial potential of this system.”
Ian Crossland, Commercial Director at Mocean Energy said: “In the subsequent months, all the technology providers will examine critical components for wear and tear against performance metrics defined both individually and as a fully integrated power and communications ecosystem. A key part of this process will be assessing lessons learned and any future upgrades that may be required for a fully commercial system.”
The joint industry participants and developers are evaluating near-term and future plans for further deployment or possible testing on live assets. This may include deploying a similar project in Scottish waters and/or a new project or projects overseas to further demonstrate how this combination of green technologies can enable reliable low-carbon power and communications to subsea equipment in a live environment.
In 2021, the consortium invested £1.6 million ($1.7 million) into phase two of the program, which saw the integration of the core technologies in an onshore test environment at Verlume’s operations facility. Mocean Energy’s Blue X prototype underwent a program of rigorous at-sea testing at the European Marine Energy Centre’s Scapa Flow test site in Orkney, where it generated first power and gathered key data on machine performance and operation.
Verlume’s subsea battery energy storage system, Halo, has been designed for the harsh underwater environment, reducing operational emissions and providing a reliable, uninterrupted power supply. Halo’s fundamental basis is its intelligent energy management system, Axonn, which autonomously maximizes available battery capacity in real time.
