MEMORANDUM
August 15, 2005
TO: DAVE FOLCE
FROM: BILL WALL

SUBJECT: ARTICLE ON FIEC SUBMARINE CABLE PROJECT

ISLAND POWER (& LIGHT!)

Caldwell Marine International recently completed a turnkey submarine power cable supply contract for the Fox Island Electric Cooperative (FIEC) of Vinalhaven, Maine. FIEC is the local electrical utility for the Fox Islands located off the coast of Maine.

The Fox Islands are located approximately 10 miles (16Km) off the mid-coast region of Maine in the North Atlantic Ocean. The City of Rockland Maine is the closest mainland town to the islands. The Maine State Ferries ply the waters between Rockland & the Islands on a regular year round schedule, except when they are cancelled due to high winds in the February/March period of the year. Sitting at the mouth of Penobscot Bay, the two largest Islands of Vinalhaven & North Haven are a rugged, windswept home to the largest and most productive lobster fishing fleet in the state of Maine. Visitors on the ferry approach to Carvers Harbor on Vinalhaven are greeted by a virtual sea of Lobster Pots. Another claim to fame are the now abandoned rock quarries that flourished in the 19th century and supplied granite lintels & columns for a host of banks, government buildings and monuments throughout the eastern United States.

The islands have been supplied with electric power via a submarine cable system installed in 1976. This nearly 30 year old system was plagued by breaks due to abrasion from a rock ledge in about 150 feet water depth. In 2002 Dave Folce the General Manager of FIEC began the process of planning a replacement submarine cable system. FIEC hired Marenco Consulting & Testing of Prince Edward Island as a marine consultant. Marenco is headed by Wally MacDonald. Also hired, as an electrical consultant, was Chuck Swanson of ECS Inc of New Hampshire.

The FIEC team set about planning a new cable system. A Desk Top Study and a Marine Route Survey were completed. Due to the fault history on the existing cable system it was pretty obvious that a new route avoiding the rock ledges was necessary. (Not as easy as you think offshore ROCKLAND!) Full burial to 6 feet burial depth was also a requirement. A new southerly route of approximately 16km was proposed. The sediment would support burial via a Jet Plow except for a short stretch on the Island approach where cable protection through a boulder field would be required.

Permits were the next hurdle! FIEC had to enlist the support of Maine’s 2 senators to assist in the permitting process. Permits were issued with an installation window of the May/June period during any year for the life of the permit. Hold on that seems too easy, laying submarine cable in early summer? Sure enough somebody at the permitting authority heard the cheers of the crew and the installation window was changed to March with a drop dead date of April 11.

The contract Scope of Work called for the supply , installation and burial to 6 feet burial depth of 16km of 35Kv composite submarine power cable with a 24 fiber unit embedded into the power cable, and about 1.9km of land power cable. (See Figure 1). The power cable was manufactured under contract to Caldwell by ABB High Voltage Systems at their factory in Karlskrona, Sweden. The cable, weighing almost 1,000 tons, was completed in early February 2005.  Caldwell chartered a freighter in Europe, fitted it out for cable loading, and the cable was freighted across the Atlantic to the Caldwell yard in Elizabeth NJ in Mid February.

Caldwell Marine International mobilized its lay barge at the yard in Elizabeth NJ. The Caldwell articulated Jet Plow with a 2 meter burial stinger fitted for the main burial was mobilized on board.. Twin 440HP surface deployed water pumps handled the Jet Plow’s water supply. The Caldwell Jet Plow system is equipped with the Caldwell Plow 2000 integrated software package that is utilized for Plow Telemetry and digital data recording. The power cable was transferred from the freighter to the lay barge and the lay barge transited to Rockland ME. A thorough Route Clearance and Pre-Lay Grapnel Run were completed. These garnered a length of about 9km of 70 year old telegraph cable and countless tons of debris. Due to the weather risk and the chance of missed debris it was decided to perform a dry run and complete a “Pre-Rip” of the route with the Caldwell Jet Plow System but with no cable installed. The Pre-Rip with the plow really proved the new route to all parties concerned.

Just before the lay was about to begin the old cable system failed for the last time and the Islands were on emergency generators. This is an expensive and somewhat risky alternative. The EPA determines how long you can run such generators and if you exceed your monthly allocation you start paying fines. The clock was ticking!

To date the contract had been in force for about 7 months and all the work had been preparatory tasks for the cable lay. The route was clear, the land trenches had been excavated, manholes installed and the land cables were in place. All the thorough preparation paid off when a small weather window opened up the lay barge was on her way and the first landing, the lay & burial of 16km, the installation of Uraduct at the island approach and the second cable landing were all completed within a 48 hour timeframe. The interconnections to the substations were made and the various tests and commissioning were completed in record time. The cable was energized and the generators were shut down. A secure energy source was up and running.

As you can imagine 16km off the coast of Maine is a somewhat windy spot (Ask our cable laying crew!) FIEC are dedicated to finding and utilizing alternative renewable energy sources. A solar power trial is currently underway. To this end FIEC are planning a wind farm on one of the islands that will eventually make the islands self sufficient and the cable will be used to transmit surplus power back to the mainland. As Dave Folce the FIEC GM puts it “We’ll run their meters backwards!” Good luck and good lobstering.

Caldwell Marine International would like to thank the people of Vinalhaven, Rockland and the surrounding areas for all the support during this project. Special thanks go out to the lobster fishing community for their cooperation. More often than not fishing communities and sub cable types are often at loggerheads with each other. This was not the case.

Last but not least thanks to Fox Island Electric Coop and all their members for the opportunity to serve them.