Verlume has successfully completed hyperbaric testing of its Orah subsea enclosure at JFD’s hyperbaric testing facility in Aberdeen, marking a major qualification milestone ahead of the system’s planned deployment in the Dutch North Sea.
The programme required hyperbaric test of the largest vessel ever tested at JFD’s site and provided a critical opportunity to demonstrate Orah’s performance under representative subsea pressure conditions before offshore deployment.
World’s First Grid-Forming Subsea Battery
Orah is Verlume’s 500kWh modular subsea energy storage system, designed to provide autonomous grid support for offshore wind farms. Its planned deployment will see the world’s first grid-forming subsea battery co-located with offshore wind, demonstrating a new approach to energy storage and power management in the offshore environment.
Orah leverages the latest battery chemistry and is controlled by Verlume’s patented Axonn power management platform, which intelligently manages generation, storage and demand. The system is packaged for the demanding subsea environment by drawing on decades of engineering know-how developed within the offshore Oil & Gas industry.
Together, these technologies create a modular energy storage and autonomous grid-support solution designed to help enable more flexible and resilient offshore energy systems.
Putting Orah to the Test
Equipment designed for subsea operation must withstand significant hydrostatic pressure while protecting the critical systems housed within it. Demonstrating enclosure integrity and functionality under these conditions is therefore a fundamental part of Orah’s qualification process.
Working with JFD at its specialist hyperbaric testing facility in Aberdeen, Verlume undertook an extensive programme to demonstrate that the Orah enclosure could withstand the required external pressure, maintain its integrity and support the required functionality throughout testing.
The size and scale of the Orah enclosure (being 10 tonnes and 7.2m long by 2.4m wide, and 2.4m high) made the programme particularly significant, resulting in it being the largest vessel that has been tested by JFD at its hyperbaric centre to date.
A Landmark Hyperbaric Testing Programme
During the programme, the Orah enclosure was subjected to a controlled pressure profile representative of its intended subsea operating environment. Testing focused on three critical areas: pressure and depth qualification, enclosure integrity and functional performance under pressure.
The pressure qualification demonstrated the enclosure’s ability to withstand the external loads associated with its intended operating depth, while integrity testing verified the performance of the enclosure and its pressure boundary, providing confidence that the system could continue to perform as intended when exposed to representative subsea conditions.
The programme required close collaboration between the Verlume and JFD teams to safely execute testing on an unprecedented scale. Successful completion represents an important step in de-risking Orah ahead of offshore deployment.
Preparing for OranjeWind
The 85 tonnes full Orah system is part of the new OranjeWind offshore wind farm, being developed by RWE and TotalEnergies.
The deployment will see Orah co-located with offshore wind, providing an important opportunity to demonstrate the role that subsea energy storage and autonomous grid-support technologies can play within the future offshore energy system.
As the world’s first grid-forming subsea battery to be co-located with offshore wind, the project will provide a significant real-world demonstration of Verlume’s technology and its potential to support efficient offshore wind production globally.