NKT Victoria celebrates one-year anniversary as the worlds most advanced cable-laying vessel

NKT celebrates the one-year anniversary of its cable-laying vessel NKT Victoria after a busy first year at sea. She has installed 335 km of cables for offshore wind and interconnector projects in countries such as Denmark, Belgium and the UK as well as completing a high-precision repair operation under rough conditions. For NKT, the vessel now plays an important part of the company’s offshore offer.

NKT Victoria introduced new industry standards for both energy efficiency and operational technologies ensuring new levels of precision when laying cables. She has been very busy this past year and our customers have been very satisfied with her performance and capabilities, says Andreas Berthou, Executive Vice President and Head of high-voltage solutions in NKT.

NKT Victoria was christened 4 May 2017 and directly went to sea for her maiden project laying the 113 km HVDC cable connecting the Scottish regions Caithness and Moray. Afterwards she has laid cables for projects such as the 600 MW wind farm Kriegers Flak in Denmark and the export cable connecting the Rentel windfarm to shore in Belgium. She also proved her capabilities in service operations completing the repair of the high-voltage link Skagerrak 2 between Denmark and Norway in the harsh November conditions of the North Sea.

NKT Victoria is built specifically for cable-laying operations and her design is based on extensive experience with offshore installations.

With NKT Victoria we have an even stronger turn-key offer increasing the project flexibility and minimizing the execution risks and costs for our customers and partners. At the same time NKT Victoria is the most energy efficient cable-laying vessel in the market ensuring the sustainable operations needed to support the growing focus on sustainability in the offshore industry, Andreas Berthou explains.

NKT Victoria uses a power-from-shore solution combined with onboard energy storage systems which reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions significantly compared with equivalent vessels. The power-from-shore connection can be maintained while loading the cable onto the vessel giving unique advantage which results in new industry standards of environmental-friendly operation.

NKT Victoria was proclaimed Ship of the Year 2017 in Norway in recognition of her innovative, technological and sustainability capabilities.