Prysmian ahead of schedule in the realisation of the Wikinger offshore wind farm in Germany

Cable laying phase successfully completed, highlighting Prysmian’s capabilities in managing turnkey inter-array contracts for offshore wind

Milan, 02 March 2017. Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, has successfully completed the laying phase for the Wikinger offshore wind farm ahead of schedule. Termination and testing works are currently in progress.                                                                                      

“This milestone, which is quite uncommon in the offshore wind market, highlights the Group’s capabilities in managing turnkey inter-array contracts and re-affirms the strong focus Prysmian has in the offshore wind market,” stated Massimo Battaini SVP Energy Projects. “We have been heavily investing in developing our project execution and cable installation capabilities. We can now count on new assets, such as our cable barge, Ulisse, for shallow water installation as well as new jetting and cable protection machines.”

Iberdrola Renovables Offshore Deutschland GmbH awarded Prysmian the €60 million contract in 2015 to supply and install the inter-array cables within the wind farm. Prysmian is responsible for the design, manufacture, installation, burial, termination and testing of 80 km of 33 kV submarine cables with different cross-sections to connect the 70 wind turbines and the offshore substation that form the 350 MW wind farm. Work began in 2016, when cables were produced in Prysmian’s facility in Drammen, Norway, one of the Group’s excellence centres for submarine cables.

Within its portfolio, Prysmian holds an ever-increasing track record as market leader in offshore wind power connections, such as the contract it was awarded in 2016 to provide inter-array cables for the Rentel offshore wind farm, which will supply CO2 friendly electricity to 285,000 households from the Belgian North Sea. Prysmian has also provided turnkey HVAC cable systems for various offshore wind farms in the German North Sea, such as the links between OWP Global Tech 1 and OWP Veja Mate to the BorWin2 offshore grid connection, the first such large-category system worldwide to take up commercial operation with High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) technology, another key Prysmian milestone.