A new breakthrough in the cable industry means power will be delivered to the cable, subsea. “Our solution adds power feed equipment along the cable’s route, maximising the system capacity,” said Maxie Reynolds, founder and CEO of Subsea Cloud.
The capacity of ultra-long haul subsea systems is limited by the electrical power that can be delivered to the amplifiers, noting that excessive voltage will cause damage to the some of the cable’s constituent parts.
The solution uses Subsea Cloud's 'compensated pod technology' to host power feed equipment in the middle of the cable, effectively raising the voltage level on the cable’s DC bus.
The company has also developed hardware that solves another industry problem, capillary action. Reynolds describes this as “the ability of a liquid to flow vertically and horizontally along narrow spaces, even in opposition to external forces like gravity.”
This is often cited as a drag on immersion cooling’s progress and widespread adoption because cables are likely to have capillary action, as they have many small spaces in which the coolant can travel.
“Culturally we are solution-centric. I am extremely fortunate to work alongside engineers whose experience is that of actual technical knowhow and real-world application,” said Reynolds.
“It is incumbent on our generation of companies to solve the problems of today. We have to develop innovative solutions that balance and strengthen what we have today with what we can achieve tomorrow.”
Until recently the voltage limitation, previously mentioned, has not been a serious issue in the subsea cable industry, but the required capacity and increase in deployment of ultra-long haul subsea systems continues to increase adding power feed equipment is essential to achieving progress.
The lack of voltage toward the middle of the cable reduces the capacity of the mid-section repeaters, so adding another source to the middle of the cable increases the total cable capacity.
Increasing a system’s power feed equipment bolsters the other advances made in the cable industry. “The architecture we are proposing will enable high-reliability immediately but will also allow growth as is forecast. It will no longer be difficult to keep up with capacity demand subject to the power feed constraint.”
The solution, which will effectively be a submerged PFE that generates its own power thanks to ocean current, can be retrofitted into older cables as well as support newer cables.
