Prysmian wins €150m offshore wind grid connection contract in France

Italian cables manufacturer Prysmian Group has secured an offshore wind grid connection contract worth over €150 million from Réseau de Transport d’Électricité (RTE) in France.

As per the contract, Prysmian will be engaged in the development of a couple of submarine and land export power cable systems. The cable systems will link the 500MW offshore wind farm located in between the Yeu and Noirmoutier islands with the French mainland power grid.

The offshore wind farm is being developed by Les Eoliennes en Mer d’Ile d’Yeu et Noirmoutier.

French transmission system operator RTE will design, build, maintain, and operate the two 225 kV submarine and land links to connect the offshore wind farm to the power grid.

Through the offshore wind grid connection project, 500MW of green and renewable energy will be exported via a submarine cable of nearly 27km and an underground cable of nearly 30 km.

Prysmian will deliver a ready-to-use solution for the design, supply, installation, and commissioning of a couple of HVAC 225 kV three-core extruded export submarine cables with single-wire armouring. These will arrive at the landfall area at La Barre-de-Monts beach.

Additionally, the Italian manufacturer will be responsible for the supply and jointing of a couple of HVAC 225 kV extruded land cables circuits that will connect the landfall area to the substation located at Soullans.

Prysmian’s facilities in Pikkala in Finland and Arco Felice in Italy will manufacture the submarine cables, while its facility in Gron, France will manufacture the land cables. The cables will be laid by the Italian manufacturer’s cable laying vessel Cable Enterprise.

Delivery and commissioning of the offshore wind grid connection project are scheduled for 2023. These are subject to receipt of the notice to proceed, which is expected by March 2020 as regards the preliminary studies, and by June 2020 for the overall project.

Hakan Ozmen – Prysmian Group Projects Business Unit EVP said: “We are proud to be contributing to the development of infrastructures of such great strategic importance.

“This contract not only consolidates our relationship with RTE, but also confirms Prysmian’s worldwide leadership in addressing the increasing need for upgraded power grids to support the energy transition.”