DOHA: For the first time, Qatar will connect two electricity substations through submarine cables. The extra-high-voltage submarine power cables will be laid by using innovative protection system to ensure Qatar's fragile marine-eco system is not disturbed by the project.
The Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) will link the sub-stations which are located on opposite sides of Doha city through its first-ever submarine cable turnkey project. This entails connecting a 220 KV substation near the Marriot Hotel with another 220kV sub-station at West Bay.
The Italian company Prysmian, a leading player in the industry of high-technology cables and systems of energy and telecommunications, is doing the 140m euro- worth job for Kahramaa. Prysmian has patented a completely polymeric innovative protection system, the "Air Bag Cable System", which guarantees an exceptional level of mechanical protection by absorbing the shocks and dramatically reduces the risks of permanent deformation or damage of the most sensitive underlying layers. The Air Bag technology provides cables with reduced weights and dimensions as well as longer lengths, key advantages as far as installation is concerned. The Air Bag technology has already been identified as a major breakthrough for underground applications and energy submarine systems.
To ensure that the project is not disturbing the sensitive marine lives, a detailed data including seabed topography and morphology, weather characteristics, sea currents and features of sea tides, will be collected through a marine survey. It would result in an accurate definition of the route and the procedures of laying, repair and protection of the cables, sources said.
The extra-high-voltage will be laid at a depth of 15 metres in Doha waters. Prysmian, which enjoys vast experience in laying submarine cables, has already laid a cable at a depth of 1,000 metres for an Italy-Greece connection and is currently executing a link between Italy and Sardinia at a depth of 1,600 metres. In contrast, the Doha project is laid on shallow waters.
The installation in the marine environment will be done only after specific route surveys.
A specially-designed cable installation vessel and tailor-made barge rigging for shallow water cable installation will be used for the job. For this project Prysmian will supply a total of 63km of submarine and underground 220kV power cable and related accessories. The installation is expected to start in the second quarter of the current year and is due to be completed by the end of 2010.
By Satish Kanady
© The Peninsula 2009
