Development of a Power System for Cabled Ocean Observatories
Abstract
Cabled Ocean Observatories offer the potential to delivery unprecedented amounts of power to remote instruments and sensors. The availability of sufficient power will enable new instrumentation and methods. Here we describe the present NEPTUNE power system design which will be capable of delivering an average of approximately 4 kW or a maximum of 10 kW to over 40 seafloor node locations spread over approximately 100,000 sq nm of seafloor. The system will have a backbone of 3500 km of standard seafloor telecommunications cable connecting the nodes in a mesh topology. The network will have 10 kVdc parallel feed, distributed stochastic load, and constant voltage output. A network of secondary extension cables will be developed that will allow the network to be extended up to 100 km from the backbone. The backbone cable has a single power conductor so a seawater ground return will be used. High availability and reliability over the 30 year life of the system is an important consideration in design and construction of the system. It is anticipated that faults will occur in the node electronics, cables, etc., so a protection system is being incorporated to allow faulted sections to be isolated and then to utilize the mesh topology to minimize impact on the rest of the system. [Work supported by the National Science Foundation.]
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002AGUFMOS72B0369H
- Keywords:
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- 4200 OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL;
- 4294 Instruments and techniques;
- 4299 General or miscellaneous;
- 9805 Instruments useful in three or more fields