Viper Innovations Ltd., a high-tech engineering company providing cutting-edge electrical integrity solutions to the global subsea, rail, and industrial sectors, is proud to have been selected as the winner of an Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence competition.
Delivered in partnership with Flotation Energy and Simply Blue Group, the initiative sought proposals from companies for autonomous solutions to inspect dynamic cables on floating offshore wind turbines. It was supported by the Innovate UK Innovation Exchange (iX) programme.
The purpose of the competition was to identify innovative solutions for monitoring defects inside dynamic cables on floating offshore wind farms. Viper Innovations’ entry built upon their record of providing electrical monitoring and asset integrity solutions for a broad range of applications and industries.
Daniel Denning, Viper Innovations Engineering Manager, said: “Our journey through this initiative, part of the iX programme backed by ORE Catapult, highlights the importance of innovation in advancing floating offshore wind technologies. As the UK prepares for the deployment of approximately 1,000 dynamic cables over the next decade, Viper Innovations is proud to be at the forefront of delivering the solutions needed to improve reliability and accelerate the energy transition.
“We look forward to building on this success and continuing to work closely with Flotation Energy and the Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence to support the future of offshore renewable energy – to push Dynamic Cable Condition Monitoring (DCCM) into its next phase, helping the sector overcome the challenges on the dynamic cable.”
Emily Sarveswaran, ORE Catapult Dynamic Cable Strategic Programme Lead at ORE Catapult, said: “At ORE Catapult’s Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence, we were pleased to support Viper Innovations through the Innovation Exchange (iX) challenge. As the floating offshore wind sector moves toward commercialisation, condition monitoring of dynamic subsea cables is vital to ensuring long-term asset integrity and reducing operational risk. We look forward to continuing our support for Viper Innovations and the development of their solution.”
Viper Innovations’ focus on insulation monitoring, insulation protection, and mechanical condition assessment for dynamic cables was particularly commended as addressing a critical and currently underserved need in the floating offshore wind sector. The winning solution from Viper Innovations, leveraging advanced technologies such as SSTDR and V-LIM, received excellent feedback from the judging panel. They recognised their expertise, the strong suitability of the technology to the challenge, and the innovative adaptation of proven insulation monitoring and reflectometry techniques from other industries, including subsea oil and gas.
Rachel Nicholls-Lee, Flotation Energy Naval Architecture Technical Authority, said: “Flotation Energy was delighted to partner with ORE Catapult in this challenge, supported by Innovate UK’s Innovation Exchange (iX) programme. Innovation in floating offshore wind turbine dynamic cable inspection has many practical applications for floating offshore wind, and we were particularly impressed by Viper Innovations’ suggested solution. We look forward to supporting them as they continue to develop this technology.”
About Viper Innovations:
Viper Innovations Ltd. was founded in 2007, today it is a high-tech & disruptive DaaS model business serving the global subsea energy, rail and other industrial sectors. Our technology and products maximise the operational life of mission-critical controls and electrical distribution equipment through integrity monitoring & fault finding and, in the case of subsea applications, remote remediation, mitigating loss of production, maintenance costs and safety risks. Visit www.viperinnovations.com for more information.
About the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult:
ORE Catapult is the UK’s leading innovation centre for offshore renewable energy, established in 2013 by the UK Government as part of a network of Catapults set up by Innovate UK in high growth industries. Visit http://www.ore.catapult.org.uk for more information.