Agreement of Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) on business developing stand-by services to provide spare submarine cables and repair barges in anticipation of the expansion of offshore wind projects in Japan

We hereby announce that Tokyo Century Corporation (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Koichi Baba; hereinafter “Tokyo Century”), SEKIKAIJI Industry CO., LTD. (Head Office: Awaji, Hyogo Prefecture; President: Masaru Seki; hereinafter “SEKIKAIJI”) and Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Hideya Moridaira; hereinafter “Furukawa Electric”) reached a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) on business developing stand-by services for providing offshore wind farm operators in Japan with spare submarine cables and cable repair barges. Details are as follows:

The Japanese government announced that it set targets for offshore wind power generation of 10 million kW by 2030, and max. 45 million kW by 2040. With a background of rapid market formation, supply chains for offshore wind projects in Japan are still at the development stage.
Electricity generated by offshore wind farms is transmitted to onshore via submarine cables. According to research data in Europe, submarine cables accounts for approx. 10-20% of CAPEX（Capital Expenditures）, but a large percentage of insurance claims is related to submarine cables accidents. Therefore, Tokyo Century, SEKIKAIJI, and Furukawa Electric decided to focus on the submarine cable segment, which is a significant factor of business interruption risk.

Leveraging knowledge to collaboration accumulated from own research by each three companies, we will have readily available spare submarine cables and cable repair barges in preparation for any accident that damages submarine cables during construction or after the commencement of commercial operation, and provide safe and secure solutions for the early recovery against some kind of accident. This will allow the operators to secure spares and barge with economic prices compared to the case where they store spares by themselves, reduce business interruption loss as a result of early recovery, enable stable management of OPEX(Operating Expenditures) over the duration of commercial operation, and increase the efficiency of such administrative tasks for maintenance and storage of spares.

Going forward, Tokyo Century, SEKIKAIJI, and Furukawa Electric will provide the operators with a secure operating environment through the business development of such services, and also contribute to realizing a recycling-oriented society through the efficient use of resources as well as realizing safe and stable supply of renewable energy in Japan.