DPS-92Page 1 of 3

Champlain Hudson Power Express, Inc.Case 10-T-0139

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Request No.: DPS-92 Date of Request: September 14, 2010

Requested By: Andrew Davis, JeremyFlaum, Edward Schrom,Richard Quimby

Reply Date: September 24, 2010

Subject: Under water cableinstallation

Witness: Alan Prior

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REQUEST:

1. What types of ships does the Applicant plan to use for installation of the cable in theHudson River? Provide a detailed description of the vessels and technical details of theability to carry the cable for installation.

a. How much cable can each vessel carry in feet?b. Provide a description of the cable that each vessel will install.

2. If the Applicant proposes to use barges, provide a description and pictures of thevessels and barges to be used.

3. Provide a picture and engineering drawing of every plow the Applicant plans to useto place the cable in the river bottom.

a. Discuss how the depth control of each type of plow is accomplished. What isthe maximum plow depth of each?

b. Discuss how making a turn with the plow is accomplished while installingthe cable. Provide a narrative with appropriate technical supporting details.Provide the maximum bend or turn that can be accomplished with the plow.Provide an engineering drawing to scale of the bend or turn.

4. Describe the curvature limitations of the underwater cable and provide appropriatetechnical details.

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RESPONSE:

1. Please see DPS-74 which details typicals of vessels that may be used for theinstallation of cables on the project. Note: this will not be finalized until an EngineerProcure & Construct (EPC) contractor has been selected.

a. Please see the below extract of the Nexans Cable System Study Reportsubmitted as Appendix G of the March 2010 Article VII filing. Use theTKRA-L cable lengths.

b. Please see the Nexans Cable System Study Report (submitted as Appendix Gof the March 2010 Article VII filing), Section 4 for a technical description ofthe cables. Please also see the response to DPS-14.

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Name of PersonPreparing Response: Alan Prior Date: September 24, 2010

2. Please see the attached typical of an installation barge pages 1-8 (Typical Data forMain Cable Lay Spread).

3. Please see the attached for details on typical jet ploughs pages 9-11 (Typical Data forMain Cable Lay Spread). Note this will not be finalized until an EPC contractor isselected.

a. The maximum depth of plough for the attached is 2 and 5 meters.

b. The cable manufacture recommends that a preliminary turning radius shouldbe 200 feet or greater. The recommended 200-foot minimum bend radius isdetermined by installation equipment (the plough is towed behind the boat)and the residual bottom tension as can be seen from the below formula not bylimitations in the cable design. Additional information on this will beprovided once an EPC contractor is selected.

Rs = Ls = FTH

Ws

Where:F, Safety Factor (suggested 2.0);TH, Horizontal bottom tension;Ws, Cable unit weight in water;

, lateral friction coefficient cable-soil

Source: Worzyk, Thomas (2009). Submarine Power Cables: Design, Installation, Repair, EnvironmentalAspects.

4. Please see the below minimum bending radius for the submarine cable (extract fromNexans Cable System Study Report submitted as Appendix G of the March 2010Article VII filing). The cable bending radius is significantly smaller than theminimum installation radius of 200 feet.

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Typical Data for Main Cable Lay Spread • Floating Craft

o 300 ft × 100 ft DP II Main Lay Barge 3,000hp Six 360˚ Azimuthing Thrusters Dynamically Positioned Class II

o Support tug o Crew Boat o Dive Boat

Surface supplied dive spread Surface Recompression Chamber with O2

o Small Outboard Powered Craft

• Fully Integrated Cable Laying, Plow and Navigation Suite o Suite allows for accurate measurement of cable tension and computation of residual

tension o Accurate Positioning of the cable o Graphical Displays

• Machinery o 4 Point Mooring System o 90 Ton RT Crane o 1,200 hp Jet Pumps o Two – 400kW Gensets o One 100 kW Genset

• Cable Handling o 2 Linear Cable Engines (LCE) o 200hp Frequency Drive Electric Motors (per LCE) for precise control under tension o 70’ tall Gantry o High Precision Instrumented Over-boarding Chute – 13 ft Minimum Bending

Radius (MBR) o Cable Angle Measurement o Cable Highway o Two Static Cable Tanks each capable of holding 203,500 ft of HVDC Cable o One Static Tank capable of holding 203,500 ft lengths of fiber optic cable

• Complete Instrumented Survey Spread

• 6 ft Burial Jet Plow

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• A-frame for plow launch and recovery

• Landfall Operations o Winch o Dynamometer o Pumps o Rigging

DP Lay Barge Configuration – Isometric View

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Photograph of a Mobilized Lay Barge for Another Project

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Typical Barge Propulsion and Dynamic Positioning System The lay barge will be equipped with:

• Class II dynamic positioning system (DP II) • Thrustmaster thrusters • Deck machinery • A cable handling system • Navigation and cable handling sensors and software

DP II Control System A dynamic positioning system is a computer controlled propulsion system allowing a vessel to maintain its position in open waters against wind, waves and current. The system consists of thrusters controlled through a computer that calculates and controls the amount and direction of thrust necessary to counteract wind, wave and current forces in order to prevent or correct deviation from the desired position and heading of the vessel. Position reference sensors, combined with wind sensors, current sensors and gyro compasses, provide information to the computer pertaining to the vessel's position and the magnitude and direction of environmental forces affecting its position. The computer program contains a mathematical model of the vessel that includes information pertaining to the wind and current drag of the vessel and the location of the thrusters. This knowledge, combined with the sensor information, allows the computer to calculate the required steering angle and thruster output for each thruster.

The DP control system for the lay barge is a NMS6000 Class II Dynamic Positioning System. It is designed to meet ABS DPS-2 requirements. The NMS6000 uses the latest hardware and software technology to provide a robust and reliable system using common software and hardware platforms to allow integration of shipboard control and monitoring functions into a single user-friendly system.

The specific system that will be used to control the lay barge consists of the following components:

• Main components: o 2 – DP operator control consoles o 2 – Signal processor units o 1 – Independent backup joystick control system

• Peripheral equipment: o 1 – lot Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) o 2 – UPS power distribution panels o 1 – Portable joystick o 2 – Alarm and event logging printers

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• Environmental reference sensors: o 2 – Gyrocompasses o 2 – Vertical reference units o 2 – Wind sensors

• Position reference sensors: o 2 – Trimble Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) receivers o 1 – Leica DGPS receiver o 1 – Fugro SkyFix DGPS receiver

Schematic of a Typical DP System with Thrustmaster Thrusters

DP Propulsion System The DP propulsion system consists of four 500 horsepower Thrustmaster thrusters. The thrusters have the following features:

• Fully azimuthing, able to turn through 360º without stops • Individual self-contained diesel-hydraulic power unit (HPU)

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• Fixed pitch Kaplan propeller in a high-thrust nozzle • Speed controlled by a closed loop hydraulic drive

The thrusters are mounted on the sides of the barge, about TBD feet from the bow and TBD feet from the stern. Actual figures will be inserted when the final barge configuration has been established. The propellers are mounted in Kort nozzles, the top and bottom of which are TBD feet and TBD feet from the bottom of the barge, respectively.

Thrustmaster 500 HP Thruster with HPU in Background

Lay Barge Anchor and Spud System In addition to the DP system the lay barge will have full anchoring capability for position holding at any point along the route. The anchoring system consists of the following components:

• 2 – double drum AMCON 270 winches • 4 – 10,000 lb stockless "navy" anchors • Four anchor fairleads and associated blocks to run anchor wire across the deck • Four steel anchor mooring buoys

The barge anchors will be controlled by two double drum AMCON 270 winches, one winch for the bow anchors and one for the stern anchors. The anchor wire will run in as direct a manner as possible from the winches to the fairleads in order to minimize the wire run on deck. For deployment off the barge the anchors will be rigged with:

• 1 – 1/8" wire rope to the pennant buoy • 1 – 1/4" wire rope on anchor winches • Steel bell buoys with a hawse pipe

The barge will be equipped with two spuds, approximately three feet in diameter and 55 feet long. The spuds will be powered by a dedicated winch.

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Cable Storage The up river lay barge will be outfitted with turntables.

The may Lay barge will be fitted with two static circular tanks to carry two lengths of HVDC cable. Cable Handling and Tensioning Systems The primary elements of the cable handling system are the LCE and the instrumented overboard chute. All elements of the cable handling system are designed with respect to the allowable specifications.

The lay barge will be equipped with: • 1 – 16.5 ton Westech LCE • 1 – 2.25 ton Airline LCE • A 300 kW generator for the Westech LCE. • A 75 foot tall gantry with a single Linear Belt Engine (LBE) near the upper quadrant • A mechanized coiling/loading arm • An instrumented overboard chute to measure cable tension and cable angle.

Linear Cable Engines The primary LCE was manufactured by Westech Heavy Machinery specifically for CMI. The standard track length has been expanded to hold a cable at 16.5 tons without exceeding a maximum dynamic squeeze of 2400 lbs per foot. The LCE is designed so only one unit will be required for any crossing, with a second LCE operating as a backup.

The Westech LCE is an electric drive unit with frequency controlled speed. It can operate with constant tension, constant speed, or a bias of speed / tension as the controlling element. The cable tracks are fully instrumented with load cells that provide feedback to the control system.

The master operator station is the primary interface for the LCE operator. The station is equipped with alarms to alert the operator if key operating limits are exceeded. The alarms will sound until they are manually acknowledged by the operator. The master operator station will be housed in a weatherproof cable engine control house.

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Westech LCE - Primary Power Cable LCE.

Linear Cable Engine Designed to Hold 16.5 tons Whilst Minimizing Sidewall Pressure

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Jet Plow The jet plow was designed by ETA, Ltd. CMI has used the plow in projects from the Caribbean to Alaska. The plow can be operated with either a two-meter or a five-meter blade.

The plow design is modified by ETA to match the specific requirements of the project. The design modifications include:

• A redesigned blade with o Separate chambers for the upper and lower jets o Internal cable path designed to accommodate transmission and fiber optic cable

• Modification of the cable entry to match the requirements of the transmission and fiber optic cables and to facilitate passage of a cable pair

The plow is about 15 feet wide, with skids 36 feet long and 2.7 feet wide. The air weight is 20 tons and the footprint pressure 5 kPa, or 0.72 psi.

The plow is designed to operate at a maximum tow tension of 22 tons. It will be towed with a 1 – 1/4" tow wire from a Cross hydraulic winch. The winch is a single drum with level wind, capable of a 20 ton line pull. The tow wire will be equipped with an in-line tension monitor that outputs data to the PLOW2008 plow/cable monitoring system.

A preliminary design of the plow with the modified blade is shown. The blade angle is adjusted using hydraulic rams, with the hydraulic pump on the deck of the lay barge, and two hoses, a feed and a return, leading to the plow.

The jet blade will have separate upper and lower chambers. There will be three sets of nozzles: • Two sets of high volume/low pressure nozzles, fed from the upper and lower chambers • One set of high pressure nozzles distributed along the center of the lower half of the blade

and fed through a separate flow system

Each of the low pressure chambers will be fed from two Godwin HL160 pumps, for a total of four pumps. These are high volume pumps, each supplying 2,000 gallons/minute at peak flow. Each pair of Godwin pumps will be connected, through a manifold, to an eight inch diameter feed hose leading to the plow. The output of the high pressure Conmaco will flow through a four inch high pressure hose.

The flow to the three nozzle systems will be adjusted by control valves. This allows the jet system to be tuned to match seafloor conditions and environmental requirements for optimal burial.

The plow is outfitted with CMI's proprietary plow management and monitoring system, PLOW2008. The subsurface electronics are housed in a stainless steel cylinder. A neutrally buoyant umbilical connects the plow electronics to the surface. The PLOW2008 monitoring system is described in detail.

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Plan View of CMI Jet Plow

CMI Jet Plow with 5 Meter Blade

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CMI Jet Plow, Original Jet Configuration

CMI Plow in 2m Mode