A newly-launched ship has cast off from Aberdeen Harbour as it gets ready begin its first-ever project laying a subsea power line across the Moray Firth in Scotland.
The NKT Victoria left the port on Saturday morning shortly after completing its maiden voyage from Sweden.
The vessel will be used to install 113km of high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable between Noss Head in Caithness and Portgordon in Moray. The work is part of Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks’ (SSEN) £1.1 billion Caithness-Moray transmission project.
The cable will be laid in two sections, with the vessel working from the coast to the mid-point for both operations. In will take around ten days to lay each segment.
Rocks and boulders have already been cleared from the route and a specialist plough is now being used to dig a trench for the power line. Once the cable has been laid, the plough will be brought back and reconfigured to backfill the trench.
The NKT Victoria is now surveying the route as it makes its way to Noss Head.
SSEN lead project manager Brian Mitchell said: “The installation of the subsea cable is one of the major components of the Caithness-Moray project and the arrival of the NKT Victoria marks a very exciting milestone for SSEN and our contractors as we look forward to the subsea cable installation over the summer.”
NKT Cables project manager Arne Abrahamsson said: “The NKT Victoria offers state-of-the-art cable laying capability with DP3 dynamic positioning as well as a remotely operated vehicle featuring cameras and sonar to enable high-precision laying of high-voltage offshore cables.
“The vessel also uses electrical power from the shore when in harbour, rather than running on board diesel generators, so that cable loading is carried out using environmentally friendly power.”
The 1.2GW transmission line is expected to be completed in 2018 and is the largest investment in Scotland’s electricity grid since the 1950s.