Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT) has been running its Underwater Substation Pod through trials in Spain as part of a contract with Iberdrola Marinas de Cantabria and the company announced early this morning that it’s been a success.  The underwater pod was developed to facilitate the collection, networking and transforming of power and data generated by its wave energy generating PowerBuoy systems in order to transmit it to an onshore electrical grid.  Testing of the system has included pressure testing, running power to and from an on shore grid and verifying data communication.

OPTT believes its proprietary, “plug and play” system potentially offers a new revenue stream for the company in addition to the PowerBuoy systems.  Offshore energy projects involve lots of devices that need to be networked and the company believes its system offers a great solution for underwater networking.

Stuart Bower, who led the underwater pod development team, had this to say: “This project has been a true engineering challenge of converting an idea on a “whiteboard” into reality and demonstrates how the Company’s technical base can be used to create valuable intellectual property. Comparable products used in the offshore oil and gas industry do not have the USP’s advantages for higher power capacity, longer life expectancy, fewer moving parts, a passive cooling system, lower cost per MegaWatt, and the ability to accommodate many power generation devices. We are delighted at the potential value the USP can bring to wave power projects and other offshore energy markets.”