Submarine Electricity Cable Demand to Place Significant Pressure on Industry Supply Chain (USA)

The high-voltage submarine cable market is, by all definitions, a niche market with few purchasers and even fewer manufacturers and installers.

The demand for these products is rapidly moving beyond the traditional role slotted for high-voltage submarine cables, connecting islands to nearby national grids. The usage of high-voltage submarine cables for grid interconnections and connecting offshore wind farms to nearby landmasses is on the rise and, according to a new report from Pike Research, submarine transmission cable projects will increase from just over 60 worldwide in 2011 to more than 350 cables by 2020, placing significant pressure on the existing industry supply chain.

 “Only a handful of manufacturers in the world are capable of producing and installing high-voltage subsea power cables,” says Pike Research president Clint Wheelock. “Our analysis indicates that the limited supply chain for cables is not prepared to meet the increased demand that offshore renewable energy production and grid interconnection will place on the market. The constraints on the supply chain don’t stop with the manufacturers. The site engineering companies and cable-laying ships required are also highly specialized and also in limited supply.”

Pike Research forecasts that Europe will continue to be the leading region for submarine electricity cable deployments, representing nearly three-quarters of all projects by 2020. Asia Pacific will be the next largest regional market, followed by North America.

The cleantech market intelligence firm also observes that the deployment of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) projects will outpace high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) cables in the coming years. While the first undersea cables deployed were HVDC, many of the deployments through the 1990s and 2000s have utilized HVAC for ease of integration into the power grids, making the technology cheaper to deploy. But recent advancements in HVDC cables and equipment have brought on a rash of new HVDC cable installations, and these systems can also address projects that handle longer distances, higher voltages, and deeper routes than HVAC.

Pike Research’s report, “Submarine Electricity Transmission”, examines the market opportunity and demand dynamics for submarine HVDC and HVAC power cable projects around the world. The study analyzes the continuing expansion of such projects and the increased strain that this growing demand will place on the existing undersea transmission supply chain. Prominent projects and key industry players are profiled in depth, and market forecasts for each world region extend through 2020. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the firm’s website.

Pike Research is a market research and consulting firm that provides in-depth analysis of global clean technology markets. The company’s research methodology combines supply-side industry analysis, end-user primary research and demand assessment, and deep examination of technology trends to provide a comprehensive view of the Smart Energy, Smart Grid, Smart Transportation, Smart Industry, and Smart Buildings sectors.

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Source: pikeresearch, July 21, 2011;