Maritime Link Project selects Nexans’ HVDC subsea power cable to connect Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador in Eastern Canada

NSP Maritime Link Inc., a subsidiary of Emera Inc., has awarded Nexans with a turnkey project to create a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable connection between the island of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in Canada. As part of the contract, worth approximately 175 million Euros, Nexans will design, manufacture and install two 200 kV HVDC power cables that will span a subsea distance of approximately 170 km.

Nexans will supply approximately of 340 km of mass impregnated (MI) HVDC subsea and land cables together with fibre optic elements, transition joints for the sea and land cables, joints and terminations.

The Maritime Link is a 500 MW high voltage direct current (HVDC) that will transport clean, renewable and reliable electricity from Newfoundland and Labrador to Nova Scotia and other energy markets in Canada and the North-eastern United States. For the first time in its history, the island of Newfoundland will be connected to the North American transmission system. The Maritime Link will also provide Nova Scotia with new access to clean renewable energy to offset coal fired generation and meet more stringent Canadian emissions requirements.

The Project will include two 170 km subsea cables across the Cabot Strait, with almost 50 km of overland transmission in Nova Scotia and close to another 300 km of overland transmission on the island of Newfoundland. With an impressive portfolio of HVDC cable connections completed in Europe, this will be Nexans most significant project in North American to date. To cross the Cabot Strait between the island of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, the HVDC subsea cables will be installed at sea depths up to 470 metres by Nexans’ own cable ship, the C/S Nexans Skagerrak. The cables will be protected on the seabed by trenching using Nexans’ own CapJet system and rock installation.

“We are delighted to be a part of the Maritime Link Project and to have been awarded the turnkey contract to deliver the Cabot Strait cable connection which is a very high profile element of a major new energy development in Eastern Canada, especially as we are already working on a current contract for the same project, awarded by Nalcor Energy in 2013, to create the Strait of Belle Isle link,” says Dirk Steinbrink, Nexans’ Executive Vice President High Voltage & Underwater Cables Business Group. “This further reinforces Nexans’ position as a global leader in the power interconnection sector with an unrivalled track record of well over 3,000 km of subsea cables in operation.”