Bureau Veritas , a world leader in testing, inspection, and certification, has delivered certification to Nexans, a global player in electrification, for its risk management system for subsea power cables. Today Nexans and BV are announcing the first outcome of their partnership to reduce risk and promote best practices for turnkey project delivery of high voltage power cables used for connecting offshore wind farms  to onshore grids. Bureau Veritas has developed a protocol, leading to certification, to help derisk Subsea Power Cables.

The subsea power cable market is going through unprecedented expansion, encouraged by major investments in offshore wind. At the same time, insurers’ studies confirm that high voltage power cables are among the most critical elements of offshore wind farms. Reliability of high voltage power cables end-to-end solutions, including installation, becomes an essential enabler for the current and the next generation of cables required to capture energy in deeper water. Hence, derisking new products, technologies and implementation methodologies towards real projects is essential for the sector.

Due to the lack of any international or statutory certification scheme, Nexans engaged in a voluntary approach to ensure their risk management tools and processes are assessed and tested by an independent third-party body. The goal was to validate the methodology in place that allows identifying the potential hazards, associated risks and evaluate the level of protection that may be afforded to the cable.

As a result, BV established solid protocol and certification guidelines to review Nexans’s risk management system in line with international standards ISO 21502:2020 (Guidance on project management) and ISO 31000 (Risk management). The BV certification approach covers any phases of a development project from conceptual phase, design, procurement, manufacturing, transportation, installation and commissioning/start-up.

Anne Fossen-Helle, QHSSE & Risk Director at Generation & Transmission Business Group at Nexans, commented: “Managing risk is an important and integrated part of the Nexans management system for delivering Subsea Power Cable Projects. By having our risk management system and projects validated against recognized standards by an independent certification company, we believe this is a trusted route to deliver stakeholder confidence showing that risk have been understood and minimized. Together with Bureau Veritas, we have certified the Nexans “Way” of managing EPCI projects and risks, developed new standards for the offshore wind farm and interconnection industry and hence reduced the risk profile of such projects and develop improved standards.”

Laurent Leblanc, Senior Vice President Technical & Operations at Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, commented: “I congratulate Nexans for undertaking a voluntary certification. It is an excellent mean to define and maintain high quality standards and continuous improvement throughout independent and periodic inspections. The entire industry will benefit from these best practices for managing risk and safety challenges associated to the development of subsea cable.”

BV is currently developing guidelines for subsea cables. These guidelines will provide updated standards to help reduce and manage risk. Building on our long experience in offshore combined with the understanding of the latest market technology, our guidelines will enable customers to benefit from our extensive view of the subsea industry.