What once operated as an “inspect‑when‑due” maintenance schedule is now evolving into something far more precise. MeyGen, the world’s largest tidal‑stream array, has woven fibre‑optic sensing and cloud analytics into its operational core. Though turbines spin in one of Earth’s most aggressive marine environments, currents surpassing 10 knots and rocky seabeds, the asset owner has moved from periodic checks to continuous monitoring, leaning heavily on data-led insight.
Since spring 2024, Indeximate’s Scattersphere platform has streamed live signals from distributed acoustic and temperature sensors aboard MeyGen’s export cables. These cables, laid unburied on the seabed, face constant bombardment from fatigue, abrasion and vibration. Yet after only a month of analysis, patterns emerged—fatigue levels held in check by quad‑armour, and stress correlating with lunar tides and seasonal storms. More pivotal still, hotspot detection within connector joints and free‑span segments has allowed O\&M teams to shift focus from blanket coverage to targeted inspections of risk zones.
As a result, MeyGen appears to have unlocked a sharper, leaner maintenance model, one that shines in its ability to identify emerging issues before they escalate. The strategy extends beyond efficiency: owners report that their deep cable insight grants them enough confidence to self‑insure, controlling risk and saving insurance costs in one stroke.
The impact hasn’t been lost on the bottom line. MeyGen consistently averages more than 95 per cent availability and has delivered over 75 GWh from its 1.5 MW turbines. In March 2025, one unit posted a record 372 MWh month, underscoring how reliability underpins predictable revenue streams. It’s proof that intelligent systems, when married to robust asset intelligence, can extract consistent performance even in volatile conditions.
Now, MeyGen has doubled down: a three‑year subscription confirms it isn’t pilot‑phase, it’s strategy. That’s telling to investors evaluating the tidal‑energy sector. If fibre‑optic monitoring can shave 2-5% from levelised cost of energy, as third‑party studies estimate, it’s not just engineering, it’s commercial leverage. Especially where power flows are predictable, yet maintenance unpredictability has historically dampened yield visibility.
Indeximate gains too: this extension transitions the company from ad‑hoc diagnostics to full‑cycle asset management. With each petabyte of acoustic data funnelled into the cloud, their compression and analytics toolkit grows richer, and potentially scalable across offshore assets. Other developers, insurers and grid operators are watching closely: here lies a real‑time health model for subsea infrastructure that could become a template for future deployments, whether tidal arrays, interconnectors or offshore wind farms.
The broader implication extends well beyond Scottish water. With global tidal energy capacity forecast to climb into the many gigawatts, tools that protect subsea cables, and ensure they flow intelligence as well as electricity, will attract both technical attention and capital clout. Assets that can “self‑diagnose” lower operational risk, optimise inspection spend, and plug into proactive maintenance cycles suddenly look less experimental and more investment‑ready.
MeyGen’s deployment of continuous fibre‑optic sensing marks a quiet yet fundamental shift in how subsea assets are managed. By converting raw acoustic signals into actionable risk intelligence, the project does more than avoid failure, it structures maintenance around data, not dates. For investors, the takeaway is clear: this is tidal energy engineering that thinks ahead.
SAE Renewables Limited (LON:SAE) was founded in 2005 as a supplier of tidal stream turbines, SAE quickly grew to include development of tidal stream projects and is the majority owner of MeyGen, the world’s largest tidal stream energy project. a hub for clean energy storage, SAE exemplifies innovative reuse of industrial sites for modern needs.
