Blow for Viking as problems found with underground cables

An earlier stage of cable laying at Kergord. Photo: SSEN Transmission.

The Viking Energy windfarm project has been dealt a setback, after it emerged that some of its underground cables will potentially have to be replaced.

The 33kV underground cables were supplied by French-based company Nexans – with 800km of cables to be provided.

Nexans confirmed to The Shetland Times that “anomalies” had been detected with some of the cables, and that installation had been suspended.

The cables only began being laid in August last year.

The French-based company said that themselves and SSE would now be carrying out on-site checks of the cables, with the affected cables having to either be repaired or replaced.

“We are in very close contact with our client, and the success of this project, important for everyone and the whole Shetland community, is our priority,” Nexans said.

Announcing the contract with Nexans last year, SSE Renewables head of onshore projects Derek Hastings said the reliability of the underground cables was “critical to the success of the Viking wind farm”.

The contract involved 800km of underground cables, which were manufactured at Nexans’ Hellas plant in Lamia, Greece.

“There were two main reasons for awarding the contract to Nexans,” Mr Hastings said last year.

“First, the cables met our stringent technical requirements.

“Second, and very important for us, was Nexans’ ability to provide a fixed price over the 18-month contract period.”

Nexans said, in announcing the deal, that it was a “multi-million Euro contract”.

The cables are set to link the turbines together before exporting the power to main substation, and then to the interconnector to be directed to the mainland power network.