Prysmian to provide submarine power cable links for offshore wind farms in France

Valued more than €300M the award by RTE (Réseau de Transport d’Électricité) is the first contract ever for connecting offshore wind electricity to the French grid

Prysmian re-confirms its leading role in offshore power grids enabling the development and growth of offshore renewable energy

Milan, 21 February 2017. Prysmian, world leader in the energy and telecom cable industry, has been awarded a contract worth more than € 300 million with Réseau de Transport d’Électricité (RTE) to develop submarine cable links to connect three planned offshore wind farms to the mainland power grid in France. The three projects, Fécamp, Calvados and Saint Nazaire, are to be individually triggered during the period of the contract. These projects are the first ever grid access connections developed by RTE to transmit renewable energy generated by offshore wind farms to thousands of businesses and homes.

“We are proud to support RTE in this important challenge” stated Massimo Battaini, SVP Energy Projects. “Prysmian is already widely involved in the provision of reliable and more sustainable power transmission connections in France, through the realisation of the France-Spain and the Italy-France interconnectors. The offshore wind market in France is a new and promising development in this segment, and this contract not only consolidates our relationship with RTE but also re-affirms Prysmian’s world leadership in providing HV submarine cable solutions”, concluded Mr. Battaini.

Prysmian will be responsible for the design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of two HV export power cable links for each of the three offshore wind farms covering both the submarine and land routes to connect Fécamp, Calvados and St Nazaire to the French network. The submarine cable links, which consist of High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) 220 kV three-core cables with XLPE insulation and single wire armouring, will connect the offshore wind parks being developed by Eolien Maritime France (EMF).

The submarine cables will be produced in the Group’s centres of excellence in Arco Felice, Italy and Pikkala, Finland. The cables for the land sections will be manufactured in Gron, France. Delivery of the cables is expected during the period 2018 and 2020, dependent on the individual scheduling of the wind farms, with commissioning between 2019 and 2022. For the marine installation, Prysmian intend to use its own Cable Enterprise, a DP 2 vessel for cable laying activities.

Prysmian has been playing a leading role in the development of offshore wind farms in Europe, with a strong track record including the realisation of high voltage submarine and land cable solutions for major projects like BorWin2 and Borwin3, Helwin1 and Helwin2, SylWin1, Dolwin3, West of Adlergrund.