WiredInUSA September 2019

Cutting copper costs

Offshore first nears completion

Miroslav Majoros

A Romanian local paper, Ziarul Financiar , quoting Telekom Romania’s CEO, Miroslav Majoros, revealed that the company intends to dismantle old copper networks in rural areas where it has few customers. It is expected that the move will reduce maintenance costs. “We have an extensive copper network which, in some areas, is not widely used, but we have to keep it in operation for one or two clients in isolated villages. In these areas we have started a project to dismantle the copper network, as we can provide the services via the mobile network,” Majoros explained.

Three export cables have been installed for the Formosa 1 phase 2 offshore wind farm in Taiwan. Jan De Nul Group’s cable laying vessel Willem de Vlamingh recently completed the installation as part of an engineering, procurement, construction and installation deal that also included 17 inter-array cables. A shallow draft design allowed the Willem de Vlamingh to position itself in water depths as shallow as 7m, so limiting the shore pull required to around 1,750m. At the beach landing the cables were pulled through three HDD ducts into the transition joint bays. Willem de Vlamingh is also acting as trenching support vessel for jet-trenching of the export and inter-array cables. The wind farm, Taiwan’s first commercial- scale offshore wind project, is owned by Formosa I Wind Power Co Ltd, a partnership between Ørsted, JERA, Macquarie Capital and Swancor Holding. It is located approximately 6km off the west coast of the Miaoli district in the Taiwan Strait, in water depths of between 15m and 30m. Phase 2 consists of the original demonstrator project — two wind turbines with a total capacity of 8MW — extended to a total capacity of 120MW.

wiredInUSA September 2019

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