Boskalis Orders Cable Laying Vessel and Acquires Cable Laying Contract
Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. has placed an order with Samsung for the construction of a power cable laying vessel. The vessel with an overall length of 100 m and with a cable loading capacity of 5,000 t is expected to be completed in the second half of 2012. The company has also been awarded a EUR 20 million contract to lay two power cable between the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali. The contract has been awarded by the Indonesian State Electricity Corporation PT.
The contract for Boskalis and its two Asian partners include the installation of underwater power cables between the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali. This is a full turnkey project in which Boskalis will place two 150 kV underwater power cables of about 5 km in length between the islands of Java and Bali. Due to the hard and irregular sea bedding and strong sea currents, Boskalis will also place rock to stabilise the seabed and to protect the power cables. The island of Bali currently suffers a constant shortage of power, obliging PLN to request users to conserve power and to schedule blackouts when existing power generation facilities are due for inspection. This project will provide enough additional power to solve Bali’s shortage and facilitate the further development of a popular tourist destination, which attracts around 2.3 million tourists each year.
The power cable laying vessel design was developed by a joint Boskalis SMIT team within a short time frame and she will strengthen the group’s position in the energy markets. There is demand for underwater interconnector power cables as a consequence of increased energy consumption, geographic disbalances in energy consumption and the growth of off-shore wind farms.