Artists concept of the USP. (Image: OPT)

Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has successfully completed trials of its Underwater Substation Pod (USP), according to the company's announcement. The USP has been developed by OPT to facilitate the collection, networking and transforming of power and data generated by up to ten of its PowerBuoys for transmitting to a share-based electricity grid by one subsea cable. Having been built as an open platform the USP can provide plug-and-play connectivity for any offshore energy device connected to it.

The trials included pressure testing, running electric power to and from the system, and verifying data communication abilities. OPT claims the USP to be a unique product on the market for offshore applications, and creates a new revenue stream for the company from sales to third party client companies engaged in marine power development and other offshore projects.

All offshore energy generation technologies require that the low voltage generated power be converted to medium or high voltage before cable transport towards the shore. Additionally, numerous devices offshore need to be networked at the location in order to be able to export generated power through a single power cable to the shore. OPT has analyzed these requirements and created USP as an answer to these performance demands.