For heavy lift, jack-up lift boats can provide the
required lifting capability. Jack-up legs provide good
stability offshore for installation services. These units
are widely available along the Gulf coast of the US
and can perform the required structure installations
and setup of the generator packages.
Cable laying and burial is the most specialized part of
the installation. Handling machinery for cable
installations is not easily or readily available to the
industry as stand alone equipment. Most cable
handling machinery is contained within cable laying
vessels. There are resources available that can
provide the necessary cable machinery, but in today’s
submarine cable market availability may require a
long lead time.
Cable laying vessels are generally large marine
assets of 110 meters or larger. They are limited in
their scope for generator and machinery handling or
heavy lifting due to their specific application design.
They do contain large amounts of cable storage and
redundant machinery handling systems for installation
services. Cable lay vessels are expensive and
availability is very tight in today’s market.
One option to hiring a cable vessel is to consider the
procurement of the necessary cable machinery or use
a contractor that has a portable set of cable
machinery for mobilization onto one of your marine
assets. However, availability is limited in today’s tight
market.