Insulation Resistance (IR) testing can be carried out to identify a drop in resistance caused by current leakage, enabling operators to take remedial action before serious faults or even failure occurs.

Viper Innovations’ unique V-LIFE technology has been supporting operators for over a decade, originally referred to by many as a ‘magic’ technology, V-LIFE has continued to be one of Viper’s most successful innovations for the offshore energy industry.

It is well known that the most common subsea electrical failure is as a result of water ingress into cables and connectors with degraded insulation. Failure of insulation resistance (IR) in a seawater environment can lead to serious, and potentially catastrophic, damage of the copper conductors of a cable unless the insulation failure is repaired.

The following information has been taken from the technical paper ‘Power Delivery and Umbilical Cable Optimisation for Long Offset Tiebacks’, written by Surrinder Retour, Paul Overton, Daniel Denning, and Neil Douglas of Viper Innovations.