Official inauguration of the Skagerrak 4 electrical interconnection between Norway and Denmark

Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecom cables and systems industry, announces that the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable system interconnecting Norway and Denmark is ready for commercial operation, on the occasion of the inauguration ceremony.

Prysmian was awarded the contract for the land HVDC cable system for the Skagerrak 4 interconnection between Norway and Denmark worth approximately 40 M € by the Danish transmission grid operator Energinet.dk in January 2011.

The contract comprises the supply, jointing and testing of 92 km of 500 kV mass-impregnated underground cable system and related accessories, with a transmission capacity of 700 MW, made at Prysmian’s manufacturing facility in Arco Felice (Naples, Italy).

The realisation of Skagerrak 4 had been agreed upon by the Danish and the Norwegian transmission grid operators Energinet.dk and Statnett in order to increase the capacity of the power transmission system between Norway and Denmark, thus enhancing the efficiency and competitiveness of the Nordic electricity market. Moreover, the project contributes to the development of a more environmentally-friendly power market in Europe, by supporting the export of renewable energy produced in Norway and the growth of wind power generation in Denmark.

The completion of this important project re-affirms the Group’s worldwide leadership in HVDC grid connection projects. The Group has recently announced the successful commissioning and hand over of two HVDC offshore grid connections in Germany (BorWin2 and HelWin1) and official inauguration of the land HVDC interconnection between France and Spain, INELFE. A further two DC offshore grid connection projects, SylWin1 and HelWin2, are near completion and are scheduled to take up commercial operation within the first half of 2015. Prysmian is currently implementing also the HVDC cable systems for the DolWin3 and BorWin3 projects.

Over the last years the Group has continued to develop a wide range of state-of-the-art products for HVDC grid interconnections. These latest achievements underline the Group’s pre-eminent role in the development of HVDC cable transmission systems, its leading position in the commercial application of HVDC cable technology and its ability in successfully executing complex turn-key projects.