Prysmian wins €85m HVAC order

The Prysmian Group, a supplier of energy and telecom cable systems, has been awarded a new contract worth approximately €85 million by REE (Red Eléctrica de España, S.A.U.), the transmission system operator of the Spanish electricity system, for the second circuit of the interconnection between the Balearic Islands of Mallorca and Ibiza.

The project involves the design, supply and installation of a turn-key high voltage alternating current (HVAC) cable system designed to transmit a power of 118 MVA and consisting of 132 kV extruded cables and associated fibre-optic cable system along a total route of more than 123 km (115 km submarine and 8.6 km land) for the interconnection between the two islands that will enable integration of Ibiza in the Peninsular network system by ways of the existing ‘Romulo’ (Iberian Peninsula-Mallorca) cable system.

The submarine cables for the Mallorca-Ibiza link will be manufactured in the Arco Felice plant (Naples); land cables and optical components of the submarine link will be manufactured in Vilanova i la Geltrù (Spain). Production of both submarine and land cables will be during 2014. Marine cable operations in deep waters - up to 750 m, a highly challenging activity, well within Prysmian’s record depths of more than 1600 m - will be performed using the group’s own vessel Giulio Verne. Cable installation and protection will be completed during 2015.

“This new project confirms the trust of REE towards Prysmian reliability after several projects already developed together (Iberian Peninsula-Mallorca/Romulo, Spain-Morocco I and II/Remo),” said Marcello Del Brenna, CEO Prysmian Powerlink. Prysmian is also a founding member of the industrial partnership Medgrid, launched to study the feasibility of a high-voltage direct current interconnection project to transmit electricity from solar or wind power plants to load centres on either rim of the Mediterranean.

Among other projects in which Prysmian has recently been involved are some of the largest and most strategic developments such as the Hudson Project in New York and the Trans Bay Cable in San Francisco. In Europe, Prysmian is playing a key role in the development of power connections for offshore wind farms, with projects either completed or ongoing in Denmark, Holland, UK and in Germany. The group is currently realising the Western HVDC link between Scotland and England, a strategic project for the upgrade of the entire British transmission grid. Prysmian has a worldwide industrial footprint of 17 plants dedicated to high-voltage cables and three plants mainly dedicated to submarine cables.