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Direct Electrical Heating of Subsea Pipelines—Technology Development and

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118 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 43, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007
Direct Electrical Heating of Subsea
Pipelines—Technology Development
and Operating Experience
Arne Nysveen, Member, IEEE, Harald Kulbotten, Jens Kristian Lervik, Atle Harald Børnes,
Martin Høyer-Hansen, and Jarle J. Bremnes
Abstract—The formation of hydrates in the subsea production
of oil and gas is a well-known problem. As the unprocessed
well stream cools down, hydrates start to form around 25 ◦ C,
depending on the water cut and pressure in the pipeline. Several
solutions are available to solve this problem. Generally, chemicals
(i.e., methanol) have been used. Methanol reduces the critical
temperature where hydrates are formed. Alternatively, hydrates
can be prevented by using thermal insulation in combination with
direct electrical heating (DEH). Thus, the well stream is kept
above the critical temperature for hydrate formation. DEH heats
the pipeline by forcing a large electric current to flow through
the pipeline steel. The system model for design and sizing of the
system is presented. DEH uses a single-phase system where the
heated pipeline is electrically connected to the surrounding sea
water. Thus, the system current is divided between sea water and
pipeline, requiring additional sacrificial anodes on the pipeline.
The anode system for a pipeline with DEH is discussed. There are
currently more than 100 km of DEH pipelines on the Norwegian
Continental Shelf. The operating experience from these installa-
tions is discussed. This paper presents the research and develop-
ment for application of the system for pipelines with lengths up
to 50 km.
Index Terms—Electrical heating, hydrates, sacrificial anodes.
I. I NTRODUCTION
A. Hydrate Prevention in Subsea Pipelines
T HE well stream in offshore oil production normally con-
tains considerable amounts of formation water. The volu-
metric content of water (water cut) may vary from 10% to
as high as 80% in the tail production phase. In a subsea
Paper PID-06-15, presented at the 2005 IEEE Petroleum and Chemical
Industry Technical Conference, Denver, CO, September 12–14, and approved
for publication in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS
by the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Committee of the IEEE Industry
Applications Society. Manuscript submitted for review September 15, 2005
and released for publication September 15, 2006. This work was supported by
Statoil ASA.
A. Nysveen and M. Høyer-Hansen are with the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway (e-mail: Arne.Nysveen@
elkraft.ntnu.no; Martin.Hoyer-Hansen@elkraft.ntnu.no).
H. Kulbotten and J. K. Lervik are with SINTEF Energy Research, 7465
Trondheim, Norway (e-mail: Harald.Kulbotten@sintef.no; Jens.K.Lervik@
sintef.no).
A. H. Børnes is with Statoil ASA, 4035 Stavanger, Norway (e-mail: atlb@
statoil.com).
J. J. Bremnes is with Nexans Norway AS, 1751 Halden, Norway (e-mail:
jarle.bremnes@nexans.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2006.887425
0093-9994/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE
production system, several wells are tied into a manifold. From
the manifold, the main pipeline is tied to a platform or to
shore. As the hot well stream cools down, hydrates may be
formed inside the pipeline, causing a reduction in the flow
and ultimately completely blocking the pipeline. Depending on
water cut, salt content, and pipeline pressure, hydrates can be
formed at temperatures as high as 25 ◦ C. Furthermore, wax
starts to deposit inside the pipeline at even higher temperatures,
i.e., 35 ◦ C–40 ◦ C. It is therefore essential to keep the well
stream above a critical temperature in order to maintain a
steady flow.
Process engineering has several solutions available to prevent
the formation of hydrates during production. The choice de-
pends on the length of the pipeline, the water cut, and the lower
critical temperature for hydrate formation, as well as regulatory
requirements.
By injecting chemicals in the well stream at the well head
or manifold, hydrates are formed at much lower tempera-
tures. Normally, methanol is used. There are drawbacks with
methanol injection. Methanol needs to be separated from the
well stream at the topside process facility, and methanol occu-
pies space and reduces the capacity of the pipeline. Moreover,
it must be treated in the process facility before it is reinjected
into well stream. Additionally, environmental regulations limit
the methanol contents in the produced water that is dumped into
the sea.
Applying thermal insulation on the pipeline reduces the well-
stream temperature drop between the well head/manifold and
the process facility. For shorter distances and/or high reservoir
temperatures, this may be a sufficient measure. However, during
shut down and production at lower flow rates (tale production),
it is difficult to maintain the well-stream temperature above the
critical limit.
By heating the pipeline electrically, the need for chemical
injection is reduced considerably. Electrical heating has shown
to be very suitable for long pipelines since heat can be generated
evenly along the whole length. Nonelectrical options, such as
hot water supply using pipes embedded in the thermal insula-
tion, are not dealt with here.
B. Electrical Heating of Pipelines
The pipeline can be heated electrically by several meth-
ods. Two of these are illustrated in Fig. 1. The embedded
cables constitute a three-phase system. At the manifold end of
NYSVEEN et al.: DEH OF SUBSEA PIPELINES—TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATING EXPERIENCE
Fig. 1. Heating methods of pipelines. (a) Using cables as resistive heat
elements. (b) Using cables for heating the pipeline wall by induction. Currents
are induced in the pipeline wall.
the pipeline, the cables are wye connected (short circuited).
The heat is generated by ohmic loss in the cable conduc-
tors [Fig. 1(a)] or in the pipeline wall by induced currents
[Fig. 1(b)].
When using power cables as heat elements [Fig. 1(a)], the
distance between the pipeline wall and the cables must be small.
Otherwise, a large portion of the heat is dissipated into the sea.
Furthermore, the voltage needs to be low in order to allow for
thin cable insulation. For this method, the electric and magnetic
properties of the pipeline wall material only have moderate
influence on the dissipated heat in the cables.
For inductive heating, the loss dissipation in the pipeline wall
depends on the electric and magnetic properties in the pipeline
material. Normally, a magnetic steel quality is required. The
heat generation can be optimized by tuning the power supply
frequency.
A problem with both of the above methods is how to embed
the cable inside the thermal insulation. During offshore pipe
laying, the separate pipe joints (pipe lengths of typically 12,
24, or 48 m) are welded into a pipeline on the installation
vessel in a continuous process (S-lay and J-lay techniques).
The cable length is much longer than the length of the pipe
joints. Therefore, the cable is laid down in slots in the thermal
insulation. The slots are made either when applying thermal
insulation or subsequently by cutting [1].
A large advantage with the methods presented above is the
galvanic insulation between the electric power circuit and the
pipeline. The risk of stray currents and corrosion is absent as
long as the cable insulation remains undamaged.
However, the alternative method where current is flowing in
the pipeline wall has shown to be the most economical and
reliable ac solution. The direct electrical heating (DEH) system
consists of a single-phase ac supply where the current flowing
in the pipeline wall returns in a cable in parallel with and in
close proximity (“piggyback”) to the heated pipeline (Fig. 2).
Here, the cable can be strapped onto the pipeline during the
installation process. It is also possible to install the piggyback
cable separately on the sea bed, but this results in a larger
distance between the cable and the pipeline and hence in a
larger power requirement.
In this paper, the DEH of single pipelines is presented. This
paper starts with a description of the concept, rating of the
119
Fig. 2. DEH with strap-on piggyback cable and current-carrying pipeline.
system, anode design, and corrosion protection. Further, new
developments for long pipelines (> 40 km) are presented. Long
pipelines lead to excessive cable screen-to-ground voltages.
Different methods to handle this effect are discussed. Currently,
a new cable with semi-conductive sheath is under development.
The test program and some results are presented. At the end,
operational experiences from several field developments on the
Norwegian Continental Shelf are given.
II. DEH
A. System Description
In DEH, the pipe to be heated is an active conductor in a
single-phase electric circuit, with a single core power cable as
the forward conductor (see Fig. 3). Power is typically supplied
via a rise cable from the platform main power.
One of the two riser cable conductors is connected to the near
end of the pipe. The other is connected to the piggyback cable,
which is again connected to the far end of the pipe.
The pipeline employs cathodic protection with sacrificial
anodes. Normally, aluminum anodes are used. The heating
system is thus galvanically connected to the surrounding sea
water through sacrificial anodes, and the sea water acts as an
electric conductor in parallel with the pipe. In other words,
the current flowing in the piggyback cable will be divided
between pipe and sea water. Two main consequences are listed
as follows:
1) reduced pipe heating for a given cable current (un-
wanted);
2) no significant voltage difference may occur between the
near and far end of the pipe (wanted).
At the far-end cable connection point, the cable current enters
the steel pipe, while part of the current leaves the pipe and is
transferred to the sea through the anodes. The electrical current
in the sea water enters the pipe again at the near-end connection
point. Typically, 40% of the total current flows in the sea water.
In order to control the added ac corrosion of sacrificial anodes
at the cable connection points, additional anodes of the same
type are used in these current transfer zones of typically 50 m.
Fig. 4 shows the circuit diagram for the DEH system. The
current in the piggyback cable (Icable ) returns back in the pipe-
line (Ipipe ), the cable screen (Iscreen ), and the sea water (Isea ).
In designing and dimensioning a system for the given
pipeline, the portion of the total current returning in the
pipeline, the ac resistance of the pipeline, and the total system
120 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 43, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007
Fig. 3. Outline drawing of the DEH system. The efficiency of the system has a maximum value in a piggybacked installation.
Fig. 4. Circuit connection diagram for the direct heating system.
impedance are the governing parameters. In principle, these
values can be calculated in a circuit approach when all
conductor resistances and self and mutual inductances are
known, i.e.,
   
Ucable Icable
 Upipe   Ipipe 
  = [Z] ·  .
Uscreen Iscreen
Usea Isea
Neglecting the end effects at the current transfer zones, the
sea water is at zero (ground) potential along the whole pipeline.
When neglecting capacitive effects, the cable screen and the
pipeline will also be at ground potential along the whole length.
Hence, Ucable equals the applied voltage Us . The equation
system can now be solved.
Calculation of all the parameters (Z-matrix) can only be
made by numerical analysis due to the uneven current distri-
bution in the cross section of the piggyback cable, cable sheath,
and pipeline. Since we are primarily not interested in all the
impedances in (1), a more direct method using two-dimensional
(2-D) finite-element method (FEM) analysis (Flux2D) [2] is
adopted.
A 2-D cross section (shown in Fig. 2) is used for the FEM
analysis. In the FEM model, the current in the cross section of
the cable is set to a specified value Icable . The sum of currents
flowing in the cross section of the pipeline, screen, and sea
water is set to be −Icable . Hence, one ensures that
Icable = Ipipe + Iscreen + Isea . (2)
The program computes the electromagnetic field and temper-
ature distribution dissipated heat, the induced voltage in each
conductor, and the current distribution between the pipeline, ca-
ble screen, and sea water. It is important to model a sufficiently
large part of the surrounding sea water in order to ensure that
the potential drop in the sea water along the pipeline comes
close to zero.
The system impedance is given by
Ucable
Zsys = (3)
Icable
where Ucable is computed in the FEM analysis, and Icable is
equal to the specified input value.
When magnetic steel is used in the pipeline (carbon steel),
the magnetic permeability has a profound influence on the
(1)
system. A high permeability enhances the skin effect, thereby
increasing the power dissipation in the pipeline for a given
pipeline current (Ipipe ). However, the impedance in the pipeline
also increases with the increase in magnetic permeability, caus-
ing a counteracting reduction in the pipeline current.
B. Determining the Rating of the DEH System
The following information is required when designing DEH:
• cross-sectional layout drawing with dimensions of the
pipeline, including piggyback cable cross section and ca-
ble mechanical protection;
• length of pipeline;
• electrical conductivity and magnetic permeability of the
pipeline;
• thermal conductivity with corresponding U -value and heat
capacity for the pipe insulation, cable protection, and
surrounding seabed (including depth of gravel, rock dump-
ing, etc.);
NYSVEEN et al.: DEH OF SUBSEA PIPELINES—TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATING EXPERIENCE 121

• thermal properties of the pipe fluids in different operating

modes;
• temperature and electrical conductivity of sea water;
• temperature requirements of the pipe fluids to prevent
hydration;
• required maximum time for heating from a cold state.
The output data are as follows:
• required in-feed voltage and current, and thus required
cable dimensions;
• active and reactive power requirements;
• system impedance;
• current distribution between pipeline, sea water, and cable
screen;
• cable temperature at different modes of operation.
Operational requirements and pipeline design data must
be provided by the project. Cable data and some pipe data
are provided by the manufacturers. However, the electrical
conductivity and magnetic permeability of the steel pipe will
vary depending on material, manufacturer, and even between
manufactured batches. When statistically reliable data are
unavailable, measurements of the magnetic permeability must
be performed on the actual pipe batches. Otherwise, sufficient
contingency must be incorporated in the system rating to
ensure that pipe lengths with low relative permeability give the
required heat generation for a given current Icable .
The electrical heating concept is developed for thermally Fig. 5. (a) Pipeline and DEH cable surrounded by sea water. This case
insulated pipelines. Typical U -values are 3–7 W/m2 K for pipes determines the heat requirement. (b) Maximum coverage of the pipeline. This
represents the “worst case” with respect to the thermal condition for the cable.
with thermal insulation. Lower U -values may apply for buried
pipelines.
The cable rating and pipe current required are strongly
First, the voltage on the grid has to be transformed to a level
dependent on the thermal characteristics of the pipe content in
giving the specified current in the DEH system. The required
the different phases, i.e., the mixture of gas, oil, and water.
current may change during the operational phase, and final
When calculating the required heat development, the “worst-
data for the pipeline system may not be frozen at the time
case situation” from a thermal point of view is the case of
the DEH transformer is purchased. The output voltage and
minimum coverage. In most cases, this is when the insulated
currents of the transformer, therefore, have to include toler-
pipe is located on the seabed (surrounded by sea water), as
ances, and this could be achieved by designing the transformer
shown for the configuration in Fig. 5(a). The maximum power
with many tappings. The required number of tappings depends
(current) needed for avoiding wax and hydrate formation is then
on the specified voltage and current tolerances as well as the
determined by the lowest observed temperature of the sea water.
acceptable change in current from one step to the next. For all
The cable conductor cross section is normally governed by
systems delivered up to now, offload tap changers have been
the thermal limits of the cable insulation. Maximum temper-
specified. The reason for this is that few alterations in the trans-
ature occurs where the pipeline is buried or rock dumped
former tappings are expected after the commissioning phase of
with the maximum depth of backfill. Fig. 5(b) illustrates the
the system.
“worst case” with respect to the thermal condition for the cable,
Second, as the power factor of DEH is in the order of
which is limited to 90 ◦ C for cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE)
0.3 in a piggyback configuration, phase compensation of the
cable insulation. The thermal rating of the cable must also be
load is essential in order to reduce the loading on power sup-
considered if for any reason heating is required while the pipe
ply equipment. Further, connecting a single-phase load in the
is in production mode.
megawatt range to the three-phase mains on a platform should
be avoided. A load-balancing circuit of passive components has
been designed as a mitigation measure. Fig. 6 shows a DEH
C. DEH Topside Equipment
circuit diagram with topside power supply, DEH transformer,
DEH will typically be supplied with power from the platform DEH load-balancing circuit, and subsea DEH.
receiving the oil and gas in the pipeline to be heated. The The inductive load is compensated by shunt capacitors C2 .
DEH system is a single-phase inductive load with a poor For most purposes, compensation to a power factor better than
power factor. Connecting this load to the topside power supply 0.9 is sufficient. Through this, the net load current Io is reduced
requires certain measures. to one-third of the uncompensated load current Icable .
122 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 43, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007

Fig. 6. DEH system circuit diagram with topside power supply, DEH transformer, DEH load-balancing equipment, and DEH load.

Fig. 7. Phasor diagram for a perfectly balanced load (assuming fully compen-
sated load).

Assuming a fully compensated load current (I0 purely re- Fig. 8. Conductor-to-ground voltage in the cable decreasing linearly toward
sistive), the single-phase DEH load can be perfectly balanced the connection point to the pipeline.
between the three phases of the mains by tuning C1 and L1 so
that the following condition is met: to adjust the supply current. If the transformer is equipped with
√ off load tap changer, this necessitates de-energizing the circuit
IL1 = IC1 = I0 / 3 . (4) in order to change the output voltage of the transformer.

Fig. 7 shows the phasor diagram for a perfectly balanced

circuit where D. Fault Protection of DEH

IA = I0 + IC1
IB = IL1 − IC1
IC = −I0 − IL1 .
The purpose of RA , RB , and RC is to limit inrush currents
when the DEH system is energized.
Instead of using a load-balancing circuit, a static frequency
converter can be used. The cost of a converter is significantly
higher than a circuit based on passive components, and this
has to be evaluated against the flexibility the converter offers
in terms of current regulation. A system based on passive
components requires tapping of the DEH transformer in order
The overall safety requirement for the DEH system is that a
cable failure is detected and located without causing damage to
the pipeline.
(5) The requirements for fault protection differ from a conven-
tional cable installation as the DEH system, by its inherent
design, is operated with two “ground faults” present. Due to the
grounding of the cable system, the conductor-to-ground (i.e.,
sea water) voltage is linearly decreasing from full voltage at the
topside terminal to zero voltage at the far-end cable connection
point to the pipeline (see Fig. 8). Conventional overcurrent and
impedance protection will provide adequate protection against
faults for the major part of the pipeline. For the far end of the
pipeline, supplementary protection is under development.
NYSVEEN et al.: DEH OF SUBSEA PIPELINES—TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATING EXPERIENCE
Fig. 9. Example of temperature variation in groups of pipes with high and low
permeability.
III. E LECTRICAL P ROPERTIES OF P IPELINE M ATERIALS
The electrical and magnetic properties of steel pipe are es-
sential for determining heat generation and efficiency of DEH.
The ac resistance of the pipeline is given by the resistivity and
depth of magnetic field penetration. Experience has shown that
the relative permeability is a critical factor for both Carbon
and 13Cr steel pipes. These data are normally not available
from pipe manufacturers. Measurements have shown that X60,
X65, 13Cr, and Duplex Steel do not possess uniquely defined
electromagnetic characteristics.
Measurements performed on large numbers of pipe joints
show a significant variation of magnetic permeability. This
shows that the magnetic material characteristics are not prop-
erly covered by production quality programs. A large random
variation of permeability between individual pipe joints in a
pipeline causes variation in pipe temperature due to variation
in ac resistance (skin effect). This effect is illustrated in Fig. 9,
with one pipe joint having a lower permeability. The pipe joint
with low permeability does not reach the target temperature.
Another important effect of variation in the magnetic per-
meability is that the impedance of the pipe varies along the
pipeline. This results in current transfer between sea water
and pipe, where anodes or cracks in the thermal insulation are
present.
The problem can be solved by dividing the pipeline into
sections, each with a limited variation of the effective relative
permeability. In practice, the individual pipes are sorted into
groups based on measurements of the effective relative perme-
ability. At the joint between two sections of different magnetic
permeability, there is a current transfer between the pipe and
the sea. Additional anodes are installed at these locations to
facilitate current transfer.
IV. R ISK FOR AC C ORROSION W ITH DEH
A pipeline system is normally equipped with evenly dis-
tributed anodes for cathodic protection. Aluminum anodes are
used. For DEH pipelines, additional anodes (i.e., electrodes) are
installed at each end of the pipeline.
In the current transfer zones, the pipes are equipped with a
sufficient number of anodes to keep the transfer current density
below values that can lead to ac corrosion. In our design, a
current density of 40 A/m2 has been used.
Cracks in the thermal insulation can lead to leakage currents
due to variation in the impedance along the pipelines, as de-
scribed in Section III.
Studies on ac corrosion in carbon steel have shown that there
is no significant corrosion for current densities below 240 A/m2
provided that the steel is protected by anodes.
123
Cracks in the thermal insulation in the current transfer zone
may cause high leakage current. Analyses have shown that
leakage current depends on the distance from an anode. If the
crack occurs close to an anode, the leakage current becomes
smaller. It is therefore important that the distance between the
anodes in the current transfer zones is small.
V. DEH C ABLE D EVELOPMENT
A. Operational Requirements
Medium-voltage XLPE cables normally have an outer PE
sheath for mechanical protection but no outer metallic sheath
(wet design). Hence, there will be diffusion of water into the
insulation. Nevertheless, few problems with water treeing have
been observed [3]. It is believed that this is mainly due to the
low operating temperatures and moderate field stress in the
XLPE insulation.
The DEH piggyback cable will experience new requirements.
• Higher operating temperature—The DEH piggyback cable
is installed adjacent to the pipeline and could be partly
or completely buried. Heat from the pipeline and losses
in the cable when DEH is energized may cause high
temperatures on the cable. This is valid for both DEH
systems in continuous operation (long pipelines with crit-
ical temperature drop along the line) and DEH systems
used only during shut downs. The latter buried parts of the
pipeline may still be hot while other parts directly exposed
to sea water have cooled down, meaning that DEH must
be energized.
• Intermittent operation—DEH is energized during shut-
down and startup. The rapid cooling of the power cables
might cause condensation of water inside the XLPE insu-
lation, which might again affect water tree growth.
• High currents in cable screen—The purpose of the screen
is to provide effective drainage of capacitive charging
currents to ground. The grounding of the outer semi-
conducting layer will ensure that the voltage across the
cable-protecting sheath is low. Since this necessitates
grounding at both ends of the cable, the screen becomes
a shunt for the current flowing in the sea. Thus, the
resistance of the screen must be high. For long cables at
high voltage, the screen voltage assumes high values due
large charging currents. Thus, a traditional solution with
metal screen cannot be used.
• Elongation/strain in cable—The cable is mechanically an-
chored to the pipeline in the cable to pipeline terminations.
During operation, the pipeline experiences thermal expan-
sion and contraction due to startup and shutdown of the
process (i.e., cool down when supply of warm liquid is
stopped). Consequently, the tensile capacity of the cable is
an important design parameter.
• Impact loads—The DEH piggyback cable could be in-
stalled in areas with fishing activities (interaction with
trawl gear) and risk for dropped objects. A conventional
sea cable design with heavy outer armoring is not compat-
ible with DEH as the induced armor currents will signifi-
cantly reduce the efficiency of the system and cause high
124 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 43, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007

Fig. 11. DEH cable conductor voltage and screen-to-ground voltage are
plotted versus distance. 1 kA is applied to a 50-km 10-in carbon steel pipe
and calculated according to [5].

Fig. 10. (a) Cross section of a cable with an insulating outer sheath and a
metallic ground screen. (b) Per-length circuit equivalent for the DEH system.
Zc : cable impedance; Zs : sheath impedance; Zg : ground impedance; Cd : cable
insulation capacitance; Cs : sheath capacitance.

cable temperatures. Hence, the cable has to be protected

by other means. A method for mechanical protection of
the cable is described in [4].

B. Calculation of Screen Voltage

The piggyback cable design for the first DEH projects is
shown in Fig. 10(a). The cable has an insulating outer sheath
and a metallic screen of stainless steel, grounded at both ends.
In order to obtain high efficiency, the high resistivity in the
metallic screen minimizes the induced screen currents.
A per-length circuit equivalent for the DEH system is shown
in Fig. 10(b). The impedances are calculated by using a numer-
ical software program based on FEM.
Calculation of voltages and currents along the cable is
performed by subdividing the cable into short sections. Each
section was modeled by the exact PI equivalent (long wave) [5].
By this method, the circuit with terminal conditions was solved
using the nodal admittance method. The calculating procedure
for each PI equivalent presented in Fig. 10 is described in [6].
Calculations for a DEH cable of 1500-A 12-kV 1000-mm2
conductor cross-sectional area show that the screen-to-ground
voltage exceeds 1 kV for a length of 15 km. 1500 A is
required to heat an 18-in carbon steel pipe with pipe insulation
coefficient U = 4 W/m2 K. The outer sheath of the piggyback
cable cannot withstand high voltage, and avoiding a high screen
voltage to ground in long piggyback cables must therefore be
resolved by other methods.
Fig. 11 shows the conductor voltage and screen-to-ground
voltage versus distance for a 50-km piggyback cable. The con-
Fig. 12. Maximum screen-to-ground voltage for different lengths of DEH
cable, as calculated in [5] and [6]. The calculations were performed with a
50-Hz cable current of 1.5 kA and an 18-in carbon steel pipe.
ductor voltage decreases linearly from the in-feed end toward
the grounded end. The screen voltage increases rapidly from
the grounded topside and reaches its maximum value at about
15 km. The maximum screen-to-ground voltage is ∼9 kV,
which is far above acceptable levels.
Fig. 12 shows the maximum screen-to-ground voltage for
cables of lengths up to 50 km, carrying a current of 1.5 kA at
50 Hz for 18-in carbon steel pipeline. The screen voltage is low
for short cable lengths, while it increases rapidly above 15 km.
C. Managing Screen Voltage for Long Pipelines
In a traditional cable design using a relatively poorly con-
ductive metal screen, the voltage between the screen and the
ground (sea water) becomes too high for long cables, as shown
in Fig. 12.
NYSVEEN et al.: DEH OF SUBSEA PIPELINES—TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATING EXPERIENCE 125

Fig. 13. (a) Both ends connection of the piggyback cable. (b) DEH with two
half-way-connected sections. (c) Intermediate grounding of the screen.
Fig. 14. Screen voltage distribution for a 50-km 18-in pipeline intermediately
grounded every 5, 7.5, or 10 km.
The screen voltage could be reduced by using a copper screen
(lower resistivity), but this would reduce the DEH efficiency
since a smaller part of the total current will flow in the pipeline.
The high screen voltage can be reduced by introducing
sectioned DEH. The simplest method consists of connecting
the cable close to the midpoint of the pipeline, as shown in
Fig. 13(a). The length of each section is reduced to one-half.
From Fig. 12, it can be observed that splitting a 30-km pipeline
into two 15-km sections reduces the screen-to-ground voltage
from 4.3 to 1.2 kV.
For longer pipelines, two half-way-connected sections can
be used, as shown in Fig. 13(b). The advantage of this solution
is that a “traditional” cable design with high resistance metal
screen is applicable.
The drawback of this solution is cost for the extra length
of feeder cable to the junction boxes. Further cost increase is
caused by the following:
• additional cable terminations to the pipeline and additional Fig. 15. Tyrihans DEH cable with (1) semi-conductive outer sheath, (2) outer
sacrificial anodes; insulation screen, (3) XLPE insulation, (4) inner insulation screen, and
• increased active and reactive power loss due to the extra (5) conductor with semi-conductive strand sealing.
length of feeder cable; this requires larger power supply
equipment. sheath capacitance between the screen and the ground. Rs
The large cost increase of a system divided into sections denotes the resistance in the semi-conductor sheath. For a
compared to a simple one has trigged a search for alternatives. sheath resistivity lower than 100 Ωm, the current through the
The cable screen of the piggyback cable can be grounded at sheath capacitance (Cs ) can be neglected compared with the
intermediate points along the heated section [see Fig. 13(c)]. current in Rs . For calculations of topside conductor voltages
This solution has lower costs since it does not require addi- and currents, the per-length circuit equivalent can be simplified
tional feeder cables. The screen-to-ground voltage profiles of a to the circuit in Fig. 16(b). Here, Z is the system impedance,
50-km-long cable grounded every 5, 7.5, and 10 km, respec- calculated by FEM as in Section II-A. I1 and I2 are the currents
tively, is shown in Fig. 14. at the host and far end, respectively, U1 is voltage drop at the
The alternative solution for the Tyrihans DEH pipeline host, k is the propagation constant, and l is the length of the
(43 km, 18 in) is to use a semi-conductive outer cable sheath pipeline.
(Fig. 15) and thereby draining the charging currents contin- From Fig. 16(b), the following equations are derived:
uously to the sea. This is the most feasible solution for long
pipelines. I1 /I2 = cosh(kl) (6)
A circuit equivalent is shown in Fig. 16(a). Zc denotes the
cable impedance, Zs the sheath impedance, and Zg the ground U1 = I2 · Z · sinh(kl) (7)
(sea water) impedance. Cd is the cable insulation capacitance 
between the conductor and the cable screen, while Cs is the k = jωCd Z . (8)
126 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 43, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007

Fig. 16. (a) Per-length circuit equivalent for the DEH system with semi-
conducting sheath. (b) Simplified per-length circuit equivalent for the DEH
system.

D. Testing of Cable With Semi-Conducting Outer Sheath

Using a cable with semi-conductive outer sheath represents
two sets of challenges:
1) finding a suitable sheath material with acceptable electri-
cal, thermal, and mechanical properties;
2) impact on the XLPE insulation system.
Fig. 17. Laboratory aging test of Tyrihans prototype cable.
After the initial screening of several materials, three candi-
dates were nominated for further testing. Two candidates were TABLE I
based on polyethylene and one on polypropylene. Samples SUMMARY OF DEH SYSTEMS INSTALLED BY STATOIL
from the candidate materials were aged in a pressurized vessel
with sea water. The electrical and mechanical parameters were
measured on both unaged and aged samples. Based on the test
result [7], the sheath material for the Tyrihans prototype cable
fabrication was chosen.
High cable operating temperatures—up to 90 ◦ C—and inter-
mittent cycling (large temperature variations) combined with
high hydrostatic pressure represent new challenges. The main
concerns are insulation water trees and electrical/mechanical
robustness.
A long-term aging program has been initiated for the
Tyrihans prototype cable, scheduled for completion in 2006.
Lengths of the 52-kV cable are placed inside a pressure cham-
ber filled with sea water. The chamber is pressurized to 30 bar.
The temperature of the water is varied between 65 ◦ C and 90 ◦ C
with a cycle time of 56 h representing one shut-down/start-up
cycle.
The test arrangement is shown in Fig. 17. Cable lengths will
be removed and examined for water tree growth at a predefined • maintain the fluid temperature above hydrate formation
interval, and samples will be subject to PD measurements and temperature in the heated part of the pipeline during
ac breakdown tests. shutdowns;
• be able to raise the temperature of the fluid from ambient
to above hydrate formation temperature within a specified
VI. O PERATIONAL E XPERIENCE AND time period.
N EW D EVELOPMENTS
The first item refers to a normal shut-down situation where
A. DEH Systems Installed
DEH is turned ON after a few hours. No immediate energizing
A general DEH feasibility program was run in 1996–1997. of DEH is required since the pipelines are designed with
From this, it was decided that DEH should be the hydrate a low U -value in order to allow for several hours of “no-
prevention method for six of the pipelines in the project Åsgard touch.” The hydrate formation temperature is dependent on
field development. Several projects have later been added to the fluid composition and shut-in pressure and varies from field
DEH list. A brief description of these systems is presented in to field, but mostly design temperatures at around 25 ◦ C are
Table I. specified.
All DEH systems in Table I are located on the Norwe- The second item refers to an abnormal situation where a full
gian Continental Shelf and operated by Statoil. The DEH cool down of the fluid has taken place. If DEH is unavailable for
systems are generally designed to meet the following design any reason subsequent to a production shutdown (e.g., power
criteria: supply “black-out” on the platform), this situation may occur.
NYSVEEN et al.: DEH OF SUBSEA PIPELINES—TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATING EXPERIENCE
Fig. 18. Piggyback cable ready for welding to the cable termination plate.
Raising the temperature from ambient (typically 4 ◦ C) to above
hydrate formation temperature requires higher current than the
case of maintaining the temperature above hydrate formation
temperature. The current demand will increase with shorter
“heat-up” times. The specified “heat-up” times for the DEH
systems in Table I are typically 48 h.
Huldra DEH is, in addition, designed to keep the arrival
temperature above hydrate formation and wax precipitation
temperatures during low production rates. During tail produc-
tion, the temperature drops in the production pipeline such that
the arrival temperature of the fluid is below a critical value
without heating.
All pipelines, except Huldra, are partly trenched, partly
rockdumped, and partly exposed to sea water. The trenching
and rockdumping are performed in order to reduce pipeline
free spans on the uneven seabed. The exposed area determines
the current demand, while the trenched area governs the cable
sizing.
The Huldra pipeline is trenched to 0.7 m and covered by
back fill and/or gravel dump. The coverage ensures thermal
insulation, protection against external loads such as trawling,
and provides resistance against upheaval buckling.
Since the pipelines will experience thermal expansions dur-
ing operation, the piggyback cable may be subject to tensional
forces as well as abrasion against the seabed and/or rock cover.
Furthermore, the pipelines are installed in areas with fishing
activity and possible interaction with trawl boards. In order to
meet these mechanical load conditions, the piggyback cables
for Åsgard and Huldra were designed with a polymer outer
coating having resistance against abrasion and impact. For
Kristin and Urd, a continuous mechanical protection profile
was developed and installed for the complete cable length.
Moreover, both piggyback cable and terminations must with-
stand the axial load due to elongation of the pipeline of the
order of 0.1%–0.2%. This may correspond to an axial load at
the terminations exceeding 10 tons. The termination design for
Kristin DEH is shown in Fig. 18.
127
B. Operational Experience
Until now, DEH has been installed on four projects with an
accumulated cable length exceeding 100 km. Both Åsgard and
Huldra have gained operational experience, while Kristin and
Urd are currently being commissioned (mid 2005).
The Huldra DEH system has been in use approximately
40 times since commissioning, May 2002. The Åsgard DEH
systems were commissioned September 2003 and have been
operated at around ten times.
Generally, the experience with DEH is good. Most of the
problems encountered originate from the installation and com-
missioning phase of the projects. In this phase, some rectifi-
cation and improvement works have been required. After the
systems have been handed over to the operation group, no major
problems have been experienced.
During the first three months after Huldra DEH was put in
service, some problems with shut-down of DEH due to inad-
vertent protection relay trip were experienced. All these trips
were caused by the overcurrent protection system. When these
incidents were further investigated, it was concluded that the
setting of the overcurrent protection was too narrow to handle
voltage fluctuation during start and stops of large motors in the
power network. The setting of the overcurrent protection set-
tings was revisited and adjusted based on measurements of the
fluctuations, and no shut-downs have taken place since. The de-
sign and operation of Huldra DEH are further described in [8].
Testing on the installed DEH systems has verified the rating
and thermal performance of the systems. Measured parameters
have shown to be in good accordance with basic theory and
system calculations.
C. New Projects and Further Developments
Since the general qualification of the DEH concept was
performed prior to the project Åsgard, a more or less continuous
development of DEH has taken place. The combination of new
technology elements not covered by the initial DEH qualifica-
tion and of work initiated to improve the concept has caused
subsequent projects to perform further DEH development.
Currently, the project Tyrihans is being developed. DEH for
Tyrihans is a significant technology step compared to previous
projects. Parts of the technology development for Tyrihans
DEH have been described in this paper. Installation of Tyrihans
DEH is scheduled for 2007.
Further DEH development will focus on widening the appli-
cation area for the system. Development programs have been
defined and partly initiated to cover the following.
• Deep water application—Projects on the Norwegian Con-
tinental Shelf and elsewhere in world require DEH cables
for greater water depths than currently qualified (500 m).
• Longer pipelines—Tieback of subsea developments to
shore or nearby platforms may employ DEH pipelines
with lengths of several hundred kilometers.
• Larger pipe diameters—Application of DEH for pipelines
with diameters of 30 in or more is expected.
• Retrofit installation—Installation of DEH on existing and
future pipelines in case of an emergency situation (plug
removal operations). For future pipelines where heating is
128 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 43, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007
not considered necessary, the pipelines may be prepared
for DEH (but no cables are installed).
Most of the above items are directly addressed to the pig-
gyback cable in order to document the feasibility for a new
application area.
VII. C ONCLUSION
Electrical heating of thermal insulated pipelines for the pre-
vention of hydrate formation and wax deposition in subsea oil
production has proven to be economically feasible. Several con-
cepts have been evaluated. After several studies and research
projects, the DEH system has been selected as the preferred
solution. In DEH, the electric current flows in the pipeline wall,
generating ohmic losses within the pipeline. The heating system
is galvanically connected to the surrounding sea water through
sacrificial anodes.
Finite-element calculations are performed to calculate the
electric system parameters and to rate the system.
In the current transfer zones of the pipeline, additional an-
odes (aluminum) are needed to keep the current density low
in order to control added ac corrosion of the conventionally
applied pipeline (dc) anodes. In addition, the anodes must be
located close to each other to avoid corrosion of the pipeline
itself, should a crack in the thermal insulation occur within
this zone.
Magnetic permeability and electrical conductivity are not
controlled material parameters at steel works. The magnetic
permeability has been shown to vary even between individual
pipe joints from the same production batch. It is therefore
necessary to measure these material properties on individual
pipe joints and sort them into groups. The pipe joints in each
group are then joined together to form sections. At the inter-
section between different sections, extra grounding anodes are
needed due to the current transfer caused by the step change in
magnetic permeability.
For long pipelines, the original piggyback cable’s screen-to-
ground voltage becomes unacceptable. Different methods for
solving this problem have been evaluated. For the Tyrihans
development, a new cable design with a semi-conductive outer
sheath has been adopted. After testing several candidate ma-
terials, a prototype cable rated to 52 kV has been manufac-
tured. The ongoing qualification program is scheduled to be
completed in December 2005.
Detection of a cable fault (ground fault) close to the far end
of the piggyback cable has shown to be difficult with traditional
protection methods. A ground fault that is not cleared may ulti-
mately compromise the integrity of the pipeline. An alternative
for fault detection in this region is currently under development.
Since the year 2000, the DEH system has been installed in
four field developments on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
On the first two (Åsgard and Huldra), the DEH systems have
been used approximately 50 times. Measured values for system
impedance and generated pipeline heating agree well with
calculated values.
Future development of the system will focus on deeper
water, longer and larger pipelines, and the possibility for retrofit
installation of the system.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Dr. B. Gustavsen and
Dr. S. Hvidsten of SINTEF Energy Research for doing the
calculations of screen voltages and for compiling the test results
on semi-conductive sheath materials, respectively.
R EFERENCES
[1] F. Aarseth, “COMBIPIPE: A new dimension in offshore field
development and design of subsea transportation systems,” in Proc.
Advances in Subsea Electrics and Electronics, London, U.K, Jun. 1995.
Subsea Engineering News.
[2] FLUX V8.1D, CEDRAT, Meylan, France, Jun. 2004.
[3] H. Faremo, B. E. Knutsen, and J. A. Olsen, “12 and 24 kV XLPE cables
in Norway. Faults related to water treeing,” in Proc. CIRED, 1993,
pp. 3.10/1–3.10/5.
[4] H. Ilstad et al., “Continuous trawl protection of heating cable for direct
electric heating,” in Proc. 24th OMAE, Halkidiki, Greece, Jun. 2005,
pp. 669–674.
[5] L. M. Wedepohl and D. J. Wilcox, “Transient analysis of underground
power-transmission systems,” Proc. Inst. Electr. Eng., vol. 120, no. 2,
pp. 252–259, Feb. 1973.
[6] B. Gustavsen, “Validation of frequency dependent transmission line mod-
els,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 925–933, Apr. 2005.
[7] S. Hvidsten et al., “HV cable design applicable for direct electrical heating
of very long flowlines,” in Proc. 15th ISOPE, Seoul, Korea, Jun. 2005,
vol. 2, pp. 44–48.
[8] O. Urdahl et al., “Operational experience by applying direct electrical
heating for hydrate prevention,” presented at the Proc. OTC, Houston, TX,
May 2003. Paper OTC 15189.
Arne Nysveen (M’00) received the M.Sc. degree in
electrical power engineering and the Dr.Ing. degree
from the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH),
Trondheim, Norway, in 1988 and 1994, respectively.
From 1995 to 2002, he was a Research Scientist
with ABB Corporate Research, Oslo, Norway, where
his main research dealt with subsea power supply
and electrical power apparatus. Since 2002, he has
been a full-time Professor with the Department of
Electrical Power Engineering, Norwegian University
of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim. He
holds several patents on subsea power equipment and electric machinery.
Harald Kulbotten received the M.Sc. degree in
electrical power engineering from the Norwegian
Institute of Technology (NTH), Trondheim, Norway,
in 1975.
Since 1976, he has been a Research Scientist with
SINTEF Energy Research, Trondheim. He holds a
key position in the development work of pipeline
heating on several projects in the North Sea. He has
written several papers on fire protection of electrical
installations and electrical heating of pipelines. His
main research activities have dealt with fire protec-
tion of electrical installations, electromagnetic compatibility, design of power
distribution systems for industry and marine applications, electrical installa-
tions on ships, and electrical pipe heating systems for subsea pipelines.
Jens Kristian Lervik received the M.Sc. degree in
electrical power engineering and the Dr.Ing. degree
in electrical engineering from the Norwegian Insti-
tute of Technology (NTH), Trondheim, Norway, in
1975 and 1988, respectively. His Dr.Ing. thesis was
on the topic “calculation and measuring methods of
induced losses for high current installations.”
Since 1976, he has been with SINTEF Energy
Research, Trondheim, where he was a Research Sci-
entist on electric power technology and has been
a Senior Research Scientist since 2002. His main
research during recent years has been on thermal and mechanical design of
electrical high current installations and heating systems for subsea pipelines.
NYSVEEN et al.: DEH OF SUBSEA PIPELINES—TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATING EXPERIENCE 129

Atle Harald Børnes received the M.Sc. degree in
electrical power engineering from the Norwegian
Institute of Technology (NTH), Trondheim, Norway,
in 1990.
Prior to his current position, he was with the hy-
droelectric power industry. Since 1992, he has been
with Statoil ASA, Stavanger, Norway. He is currently
a Specialist in pipeline heating and has been a key
person in all pipeline heating projects since 1997.
He has written several papers on electrical motor
drives and pipeline heating and holds patents within
the field.
Jarle J. Bremnes received the M.Sc. degree in
electrical power engineering from the Norwegian
Institute of Technology (NTH), Trondheim, Norway,
in 1992.
From 1992 to 1997, he was a Research Scientist
with ABB Corporate Research, Oslo, Norway. He
has been working with offshore and subsea motor
drives and power systems since 1996 and DEH
systems since 2000. Since 2003, he has been a
Senior Engineer with Nexans Norway AS, Halden,
Norway.

Martin Høyer-Hansen received the M.Sc. degree

in high-temperature superconductivity in 2003 from
the Norwegian University of Science and Tech-
nology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, where he
is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in
the Department of Electrical Power Engineering.
His subject is direct electrical heating of subsea
pipelines aimed specifically at studying current dis-
tribution and electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of
the pipe.

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